Saving the Best for Last

Winter has arrived in full force in the Northern Rockies.  Correspondingly opportunities to spend time on the water have decreased accordingly.  Lately I've been able to get on the water one day a week it seems.  On Friday the mercury hit the mid 30s and I spent a couple of hours on one of my least favorite waters in the world.  Unfortunately it also happens to be one of the most convenient waters for me to fish as it is close to home.  Needless to say it was more of a reason to spend some time outside on a nice day than it was fishing. 

The forecast for Saturday was likewise conducive to wetting a line so I headed over to a quality winter fishery.  It's been an interesting year of fishing as we experienced  record high water that really made for relatively disappointing fishing this summer.  I did have a great run in the spring that resulted in a few big Browns, but the summer didn't produce any particularly memorable fish and the fall produced some 20" fish but nothing truly large.  The water I fished on Saturday does hold the potential for big fish.  I've hooked a few that were 4-5lbs or more and landed some fish in excess of 20" over the past year. 

Upon arrival the wind was blowing pretty good, which is all too common on this piece of water.  My hands,  along with my guides, were frozen and the fishing started off slow.  I worked some water that normally produces and didn't find any willing fish.  I headed upstream to another likely spot and got a respectable 15" Brown to get on the board.  From there I headed up to the make or break spot for the day.  There's a bucket that has been holding lots of fish for the past 6 weeks or so.  I've caught upwards of 20 fish a day in this spot at times so I figured if this didn't produce it was going to be a long, cold, frustrating day.  After several casts I hooked up a small fish that ended up being foul hooked.  I was a bit concerned that my honey hole was going to be relatively barren.  I made a few more casts and saw a slight pause in the indicator.  It was the subtle indication that most anglers, even relatively experienced anglers, would not set on.  Usually when these subtle pauses are set on there is nothing there as it is just an indication of the weight or fly bouncing on the bottom.  The flip side is that when the indication is actually that of a fish taking the fly it is often a larger fish.  I suppose that is because the bigger, dominant fish exert the least amount of energy possible when they are feeding opportunistically on food in the drift. 

I set the hook, with little expectation that it would be a fish, and felt a fish on.  The fact that the only fish I had hooked in the spot so far was foul hooked had me concerned that I had possibly foul hooked another fish.  There was no doubt that the fish was strong and heavy, but a 16" fish hooked in the tail can at times feel like a 20+" fish hooked in the mouth.  I got a glimpse of it and realized it was a very, very nice fish.  At this point however I still couldn't see if it had eaten one of my flies or if the hook was embedded somewhere on the fish's body.  I kept my cool and tried to get control of the fish and keep him out of the various weeds that could spell disaster if he dove into them.  I got another look and saw that he had eaten one of my flies and it was sitting right in the corner of his mouth.  At this point I start to get very concerned that I was not going to be able to land this fish.  If it were foul hooked and it got off or broke off it really wouldn't be that big of a deal for me.  Sure I'd like to see exactly how big it was, but ultimately landing a foul hooked fish isn't satisfying.  Now that I was sure it was fair hooked I'm contemplating how in the world I'm going to land the fish.  My indicator was set a good 10' or more from my bottom fly meaning that was as much line as I could reel in.  On top of that my net isn't all that large or deep. 

I worked the fish with all the finesse I could while still keeping it from getting wrapped up in the weeds and finally was able to lift it's head and reach with all I had with my net and scoop it up. 

24 Inch Brown

After landing it, then began the mad scramble to get my camera and measuring tape out with my numb, frozen fingers.  I worked as fast as I could in order to reduce the stress placed on the fish as much as possible.  The pictures correspondingly aren't as great as I would have liked but will work.  It measured 24" on the button. 

With 21 days left until the end of 2011 I caught my largest fish.  Anything is possible but I would suppose this will be the big fish of the year for me.  It wasn't in the fall like I had expected and it wasn't on one of the big rivers that I picked up the Spey rod to be able to fish, but it was big and it was fun.