chidders

Dry fly that was so politically incorrect it made me laugh as much as if someone showed up with a bucket of KFC at Jenny Craig party.

Wow awesome prizes!

looks like it was a great trip! Thanks for the post.

Hat & T please.

No it is not! Our born date was July 15th and I think I've been out three times since. Toolman I think you should offer to babysit so Birchy can get out.

Congrats daddy! Wow he looks good for 5wks early. Hope all stays well and you get lots of sleep.

Man don't trip and bump your head for god's sake!

Wow hardly missed a beat...... or BJOTW!

1/2 for me. Does someone else have another 1/2 so we could make up one WHOLE year?

Welcome to the Forum Ben from Holland.

Recovery for 2-6wks.......I hope it's back to work in 6wks but fishing after 2!

I feel so inexperienced against you two 26.5" & 24" are hard to beat for first year . Maybe I could be lucky enough to tag along with all the experience you two could shed on me

Looks good Birchy! As a fellow first year guy, you have set the benchmark for me to get into a BIG brown before the end of the season.

After the sun goes down is the best time to attack the nest. All the wasps should be in that one spot for an easy kill shot with raid wasp killer. I know from experience as I had a nasty run in with a nest last year and that took care of them.

Funny. BBT did you get slipped this number last night in the bar?

I haven’t been able to get out much lately but at least I can enjoy and live vicariously through your guy's posts. Thanks Max.

Congrats Dave. Nice work.

Conor I was in your shoes not long ago. I stayed close to home on the Bow the last three weeks before the due date. It turned out I was actually fishing when my wife started her labour. It was a Sat morning only two weeks ago on the bow and I “got the call” so I was home in 15 mins. Glad I didn’t venture out farther than that.

So true! If we have another one I will have to try so we have it during the "off season"

Finally after 9 months I was able to catch this little guy on this past Sunday after a long 25hr fight. First one for me so I am very proud daddy.

How are those river moths? I know from past trips it can get pretty bad out there.

Brent make sure you don't get stopped fishing with that bait

You sure made up for lost time. Good on ya! Nice report.

Lornce I hate to see that happen to nice guys like yourself. Hopefully someone will be able to get this back to you.

Of course there will be many answers to this question and opinions. But you are right track because the less time spent fighting the fish, the better the rate of recovery and chance it will survive. IMO depends on how big and if it runs downstream or not. If you can keep it out of the fast current you should be able to land him quickly. Max/Toolman’s clinic they showed us a method that if you give the fish side pressure by turning your rod to the side, it forces the fish to face upstream and may prevent him to run downstream and into the faster current. Bhurt gave me a re-lesson on this last weekend and I was able to watch him in action will success landing some big ones. Average time for a 22" fish was about 2 minutes. I got a sick feeling to my stomach watching a guy across the river spinning and was catching some fish. It was hard to see exactly the size he caught but must have been at it for a good 10-12 minutes bringing it in.