My most memorable ever.

[Mark Knapp 0]

This thread is about you most memorable catches ever. I have several most memorable catches. I'll show some mine and I'd love to see some of yours.

This is one of my most memorable rainbows ever, not because he was big but because he was a challenge to catch. Everything was hitting egg patterns or flesh flies but not him. I was sight fishing the Aniak River in western Alaska and put an egg pattern right past him several times, he looked at it and followed it but stuck his nose up at it. Then I tried a flesh fly, nothing doing. Rejection. Both of those flies had been catching fish all day.

There were rotting fish on the gravel bars so I decided to put on a maggot fly, tied from latex glove material. Bang, he hit it without even a second look. What a blast.

[Mark Knapp 0]

Here's another one. Tiger rockfish on a fly. I had been trying for six years to get one. Then I did, not only that but I got it all on video. This is 120 feet down on my fly line. If you turn up the sound at the end, you can hear how excited I was.

 

[partsman 0]

mark, this brown is forever etched in my mind. It was not the biggest, nor taken on a more famous river just to the north, no hatches or spinner falls going on. On a late spring day as I worked my way upstream on this river known more for canoe trips and partying I had caught a few nice browns. As I came a bend just ahead of me I heard a huge splash. My first thought was it’s a beaver as I have seen a few here. But as I sneaked forward I saw no beaver, but there was some nice vegetation and a nice log . So I made a cast with size 14 Roberts yellow drake, nothing, another cast, the fly just sat there, and then the water erupted! I was fishing my brand new gloomis nrx lp 5 wt. I struggled to take up line and try and  back pedal to get the fish away from the bank side vegetation, then the fish ran around me and had the rod wrapped right around me. I kept waiting to here the snap of the rod, but it held up well and I landed the fish and some good pics. This is one of those moments I will cherish for the rest of my life.

mike.

[niveker 0]

@Mark Knapp - that's pretty cool point of view.  Never saw that before, but then I'm not much of a tube watcher.    

 

I remember this one, much like @partsman’s, not because of the size or fight of the fish, just one of those moments when everything came together perfectly for a few seconds.  Fishing dries on a small stream mid-summer, water was low and warm, probably too warm to be honest, very few small deep holes for shelter.  Only thing to the net was some small fallfish.  Until I came upon this small chute emptying into one of the deeper pools I’d encountered so far.  It was a perfect cast - the Henryville Special landed about halfway down in the middle of the chute, with the leader falling off to the right and with just enough slack for the fly to drift free for a few feet.  This Brown hit that fly just as it approached the big rock on the left and I felt that little jolt. 

Poor fish pic, I know, I was trying to get that guy back in the stream as quickly as I could.  I think about him every time I drive over that stream.   

I’m an easy fly fisher to please, I guess – LOL. 

 

[flytire 0]

27 inch brown trout - parachute adams - big horn river - montana

and this one - also on the big horn

[Chasing_Tails 0]

I was able to leader this fish, but never truly landed. Hooked 200 yards off the beach fishing the pogy pods. Two and a half hours later we ended the fight approximately 3 miles offshore breaking the fish off to avoid exhausting it. Flat calm west wind day. Even 3 miles out it was flat as glass and clean blue water. had schools of bonito busting, sea turtles, and a curious FWC boat trying to figure out how two kayakers ended up out there.

Estimated at 120-140lbs., largest and hardest fighting tarpon I have ever hooked.

 

[DFoster 0]

There are two that come to mind right off.  First this Swift River rainbow.  I had been fishing the deeper holes using mostly size 20 and 22 nymphs.  That's actually considered a large fly for the Swift, the prevailing wisdom of a lot of the local anglers is to fish # 30's on 9X under an indicator.  The problem is I don't enjoy fishing that style.  I had caught a lot of trout, maybe 15 or so but nothing over 12".   I decided to call it a day and fished my way back to the parking lot using a #14 Royal Wulff dry.  At the end of one drift my fly was 4' off the tip of the rod and crossed over an area  no more than 12"s deep when bang!  I was using my usual 3 Weight with 6X so this one was great fun.

The 2nd fish was this stocked Brook Trout that grabbed a hyrdopsyche nymph.  Not a pretty fish as far as Brook trout go but a 14" stocked fish is not supposed to put up the kind of fight this guy gave me.  Despite my best efforts after a few minutes he finally managed to get down stream of my position into some faster water and used every bit of that strong current to his advantage.  It seemed like he tried to wrap my leader around every rock in the river and how the 6X didn't break I don't know.  About the only trick he didn't use was to jump.  With even stronger water below me moving any further down stream was not an option-  I had to fight it out from where I was and try to protect the tippet.  After a while I was able to begin to retrieve line before he would run again but I was gaining ground each time.  It took forever to tire this one out. Tough fish!

 

 

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I love this thread! Unfortunately, because I usually fish alone, I don't take that many pictures of the fish I catch. The most memorable ones were probably some of the first big trout that I caught, but those were before digital cameras or camera phones were widespread, so they remain mental snapshots. There was the 18" Brown on the Pere Marquette that had been crashing hoppers all afternoon but wouldn't touch anything I threw at him...until the sun went down and he hammered the streamer I chucked into his hole on the first cast. Or the 21-incher the next summer that did take my hopper. (I do have a Polaroid of that one  ). 

This guy I just caught yesterday, and he was, if not memorably large, very memorably fun. Kept chasing one streamer pattern after another but refusing to commit until I decided to give up and move on. I switched back to the first pattern he'd chased, then thought, "What the hell?" and chucked it at him one last time. Wham-o! Fish on

 

 

[Guest]

Many memories from the 20” Browns and 4 lb Rainbow from SpringRiver,  biggest Cutthroat from the White, my first Peacock, Mayan Cichlid, Featherback from South Fla., the Baracudas from Islamorada, the Tarpon I jumped on fly at BigPineKey (Tarpon I caught at BahiaHonda but not on fly), the yellowtails and black snapper from BH on the fly are pictured some places on this site.  But the mostest is the Brown I caught on a Salmon/stone fly floater on Henry’s Fork Idaho.   I put the fly, rubber legged nymph, and an actual adult fly in resin with picture gifted to my DD.  

Experiences and lasting  memories are what it’s all about...😉

[partsman 0]

Wonderful memories all, I really enjoy reading your recollections of fly fishing adventures close to home or far away! Please keep them coming, and hopefully with the weather turning here in Michigan I can add a story or two.

Mike.

[Mark Knapp 0]

19 hours ago, partsman said:

mark, this brown is forever etched in my mind. It was not the biggest, nor taken on a more famous river just to the north, no hatches or spinner falls going on. On a late spring day as I worked my way upstream on this river known more for canoe trips and partying I had caught a few nice browns. As I came a bend just ahead of me I heard a huge splash. My first thought was it’s a beaver as I have seen a few here. But as I sneaked forward I saw no beaver, but there was some nice vegetation and a nice log . So I made a cast with size 14 Roberts yellow drake, nothing, another cast, the fly just sat there, and then the water erupted! I was fishing my brand new gloomis nrx lp 5 wt. I struggled to take up line and try and  back pedal to get the fish away from the bank side vegetation, then the fish ran around me and had the rod wrapped right around me. I kept waiting to here the snap of the rod, but it held up well and I landed the fish and some good pics. This is one of those moments I will cherish for the rest of my life.

mike.

 

Very nice, thanks for the story.

[Mark Knapp 0]

5 hours ago, niveker said:

@Mark Knapp - that's pretty cool point of view.  Never saw that before, but then I'm not much of a tube watcher.    

 

I remember this one, much like @partsman’s, not because of the size or fight of the fish, just one of those moments when everything came together perfectly for a few seconds.  Fishing dries on a small stream mid-summer, water was low and warm, probably too warm to be honest, very few small deep holes for shelter.  Only thing to the net was some small fallfish.  Until I came upon this small chute emptying into one of the deeper pools I’d encountered so far.  It was a perfect cast - the Henryville Special landed about halfway down in the middle of the chute, with the leader falling off to the right and with just enough slack for the fly to drift free for a few feet.  This Brown hit that fly just as it approached the big rock on the left and I felt that little jolt. 

Poor fish pic, I know, I was trying to get that guy back in the stream as quickly as I could.  I think about him every time I drive over that stream.   

 

 

I’m an easy fly fisher to please, I guess – LOL. 

 

Nice, Nice water. Who wouldn't love to fish there.

[Mark Knapp 0]

5 hours ago, flytire said:

27 inch brown trout - parachute adams - big horn river - montana

and this one - also on the big horn

 

That sure is a pretty fish Norm. I've never gotten to fish Montana.

[Mark Knapp 0]

4 hours ago, Chasing_Tails said:

I was able to leader this fish, but never truly landed. Hooked 200 yards off the beach fishing the pogy pods. Two and a half hours later we ended the fight approximately 3 miles offshore breaking the fish off to avoid exhausting it. Flat calm west wind day. Even 3 miles out it was flat as glass and clean blue water. had schools of bonito busting, sea turtles, and a curious FWC boat trying to figure out how two kayakers ended up out there.

Estimated at 120-140lbs., largest and hardest fighting tarpon I have ever hooked.

 

 

Never gotten to do that either, What a nice fish.

[Mark Knapp 0]

All great stories you guys. I love it.

Here's another one I can't forget. A 22 pound 38 3/8' pike on a five wt.