On Friday I fished a creek down south; fishing was slow, so I drove to another section of the same creek to try my luck. Caught a few bows &
a couple cutts & cuttbows- very slow for this creek. Almost gave up, but decided to fish one more stretch; had fished this area once last year
with no luck at all. Landed a couple nice cutts in the first couple pools, decided to walk to one more; I remembered that it had a tiny creek
dumping in there- might be worth a shot. That pool made my day, & then some! First cast, a fish slammed my nymph- a 14" cutt. As I was
playing this fish, I saw a MUCH bigger fish trying very hard to eat the cutty! Pulse started pounding as I envisioned catching a big bull trout.
I released the cutt & grabbed my other rod, already rigged with a smallish streamer with a wet fly tied behind it- this was my 2WT, but I had
8lb tippet on it. Figured I might miss my shot at a biggun if I took the time to retie on my other rod, so what the hey? First cast, another nice
cutt on the wet. Next cast, a 15-16" brown with that big hawg trying to steal him off my line; I assumed it was a bull because that's the only
fish I've seen (besides pike) exhibit this aggressive behaviour. I caught about 14-15 trout from that pool, all hooked in about a 10ft square
area, lost a couple more that went aerial(cuttbows?), & missed several more hooksets. Twice I thought I had the big one; first one turned out
to be a 17" brown, hooked in the arsehole (OW!), the next was a beautiful 19" brown. Most were caught on the wet fly; then I switched back
to a two-nymph rig on my 3WT. Caught a few more browns & bows before hooking the fish of the day. This fish was powerful and stayed deep
at first; he tore up, down, & across the pool several times before erupting from the water in front of me. This was a brown that made my 19"er
look small; at least several inches longer, & way thicker. I was still grinning from ear to ear a minute later when my tippet parted between my
two flies, leaving that monster brown with a San Juan Worm in his yap, & me with my GRHE & a great memory of one that got away.
After a few more casts with no hits, I headed back to the car with a smile on my face; that pool had turned a pretty slow day into one that I
won't soon forget. The picture of that big brown exploding out of the water is burned into my brain.
Now, back to the topic: have any of y'all ever had a brown chase down a fish you were landing? I never got a good look at the one chasing
my fish because the water was very off-colour, but I assumed it was a bull. After hooking that big broonie, I started to wonder if browns ever
did that. I've never seen or heard of it, but maybe in that stained water they get a little braver (dumber?). What do y'all think?
Steve M (Bob Loblaw)