The One That Got Away

[danthebugman 0]

It's been a few weeks since I have been on the water so I was really needing to get out and throw a line.  I grabbed my 4 wt and hit my local trout stream with my son yesterday morning.  We scouted out some stretches I haven't fished before and I caught several creek chub, sunfish, and some small trout.  Overall it was a lovely day.  In the afternoon I found a nice deep stretch of the creek and landed some nice trout.  Then it happened...

I found a nice deep hole behind a fallen tree.  It screamed big trout.  My son hadn't caught anything thus far so I let him take first crack at it while I waded downstream to check out some spots.  When I returned he reported that there were some huge trout that had shown interest in the lure he'd been using.  I took stock of the situation and there was no real way to get a cast in there because of the overhanging branches.  So I swapped out my woolly bugger for a clouser minnow.  It was the only thing I had that would get down quick enough in the current spilling over the fallen tree.  I peeled some line off my reel, lowered the clouser into the current and let it drift down into the hole.  Then my line tightened and I set the hook into a hog of a rainbow.  It was hard to keep the fish away from structure and try to horse it over the log because of the overhanging branches, but I almost managed it.  I was trying to get my net from my waist pack when the trout jumped, spit the clouser back at me, flipped the middle pectoral finger and swam back down to the bottom of its hole.  I spent another 30 minutes trying several different colors of clouser and putting an unholy amount of slip shot on my leader to get down some other flies with no bites.  I had several looks from what looked like nice trout, but no bites.  I'm still thinking about that fish.  I might have to go back this week and give it another go.

[vicrider 0]

Great pictures and at least you touched base with one of the streams big bosses even if he won this round.

 

[Steeldrifter 0]

It happens, but the good in the situation is now you have his address. I had the same thing happen to me last month on my trip. Hooked a real nice colorful 18" bow that jumped like a steelhead multiple times only to lose him with in 10ft of the net. I gave him a rest for a day or two and then went back and hooked him again 2 nights later and landed him.  It's always a heart breaker to lose a good fish, but now that you know where he lives it's just a matter of time

[skeet3t 0]

Had the same thing happen on the Little River, Townsned, Tennessee. ishing behind what is now the KOA and cast an elk hair caddis by a rock. got a good strike but lost it after a few seconds. Mentioned this to another camper. the next day he thanked me and said it was a 16 inch rainbow. No problem as two or three years later I got into a dark hendrickson hatch for an entire week. Never counted but must have caught over 200 that week. Spinfisherman batted zero.

One never knows what lurks in the depths of a stream river or lake.

[niveker 0]

Great report and photos, Dan, nice variety of fish, too.  

[Philly 0]

I had something similar happen to me years ago on the White River  in Vermont.  I had been fishing the upper portion for trout, and the last spot was a deep pool where I needed a sinking line to get down to the trout..  I caught a couple of small browns and then moved on as I made my  way down river fishing the deeper pools  I moved from the trout areas to the lower sections where smallmouth  are predominant.   I found a nice spot where I could wade out to a gravel bar with the main river on one side and deep pool between it and the rocky bank.  I tied on a size 8 Estaz bug, made a couple of casts, something took a swipe at.  I switched to a large white woolly bugger.  Lobbed it out into the pool and let the current swing the fly.  The line stopped moving and seemed to be moving upstream.  I stripped in the slack and set the hook and this huge smallmouth exploded out of the water.  At that time I had already caught a couple of 20 inch smallmouths on my trips to Ontario.  This fish was a lot bigger.  It jumped a second time and the tippet broke.   I flopped down on the gravel to let the adrenaline go down.  Reeled the line in.  As I looked at the remains of the tippet I realized  that I had not changed it when I switched over to chasing smallies.  The 6X tippet didn't stand a chance.