More on that later. Check out this sweet pic of the trout I caught. This thing fought like a mad man! I couldn't believe the runs this thing took. Ok..... it came right in and this was like the first fish I hooked after a few hours of whipping the water.
But Marty. Marty on the other hand had to chase this one downstream for a good 200 yards before bringing him into the net. Marty had to stop fishing for a half hour just to catch is breath. The tail walking this thing did was just incredible. This was after hooking two dozen in a row. ....... Uh.... not really. Same Same. First fish Marty hooked all morning and it came right in too. WTF.... This section (clearly identified in the picture) is usually one right after the other. Flows were up, plenty of water, and three guys trying every trick in the book wound up landing 4 or 5 total in 3 and a half hours of fishing. And then......................"Oh my God". Ben is just upstream from the bridge from me. He repeats, "Oh my God". I stopped fishing immediately and started for the other side of the bridge. I know Ben pretty well and this was not going to be a small fish. I had no idea what he had really hooked though. I had to go up and cross on the bridge to get to the far side and by the time I got to Ben he was trying to stuff this toad into his net. "Oh my God" is all I could say. What a friggin SLAB!! Ben had to really put some heat on him to keep him out of the current. After a push or two for the main channel this guy just gave up and came right in. He's been through this before. Go on, measure me, take my picture, and put me back. And that's just what we did. I couldn't help myself. I had to ask, "can I let him go". I know. Save the hate mail. Ben was cool and let me let him go. What a fish! A true trophy trout. Colorful (picture doesn't come close). Dark green back and brick red sides. Perfectly defined spots. Huge snub nose. Very healthy. No real scars to speak of. Pretty much a perfect specimen. I thought I would have a minute with him while he recovered. Usually a big fish like this takes a minute to catch his breath. Not this guy. 3 seconds max and he was off! So awesome. This is why we fish. Great moment in time. The trick? A super slow retrieve with an articulated streamer. The take? A barley noticeable "tick" at the end of the line. Guess what? Streamer fishing at Rainbow Falls really pays off! Ben, would you have detected that take last summer?
Oh I suppose you want to see the fish. Try not to drool. Any guesses on length and weight? Yes Ben had good coaching on this pic but don't let that fool you. This thing was a beast.
What a cool day! Really slow and difficult to figure out what they wanted. Funny, I don't think I would have figured it out last year. The subtle take is deceiving, I think the pigs at Rainbow Falls has help. All I could think of was, crap, I hope my knot holds. I must admit, i definitely prefer streamer fishing, more active on my part but not as productive. But when you do hook one, they can look like this!!! My Colorado fishing has been really fun since I met Jamie. Thanks bro...it was really cool to see how excited you were.
ReplyDeleteGreat trip as always when fishing with two of the best dudes to go with. Was so slow though, not the usual for this part of the river for sure. I don't know how many times I switched flies, depth, weight, etc etc and only managed to land two fish in the 3-4 hours we were there. Ben's hog though made up for it though, even though it wasn't on my line, LOL
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