kungfool Posted April 23, 2010 Posted April 23, 2010 Made it out to the bow last Sunday for 2 hours and had quite a unique experience. Fished a piece of water I wouldn’t normally fish, and caught my all time record trout! After almost 20 years of fly fishing, this one absolutely smashed my record! The experience started at the parking lot. When I arrived the parking lot I was shocked to see so many vehicles. There were at least twice as many as I have ever seen before. I thought, I wonder how many miles I’m going to have to hike to get into a fish as I counted only around 5 pretty good runs within about 3 miles. Anywho, I headed up stream and as I suspected found 2-3 guys in each run with others fishing some pretty un-impressive sections in between the good runs. I made my way to a run I wanted to try, which was quite far just to find 2 guys there, and 1 more above them in some riffles. I almost turned around and went back but though, hey screw it. I’m going to try and cross the river above these guys and fish the other side since no one is there. I scoped out a gravel bar and small island ¾ across that I thought would be do-able and headed in. I was a little nervous as I have never cross the Bow before and didn’t want to go for a swim. After about 5 or so minutes I made it to the small island and noticed there was a beauty little run on the other side between it and the other bank so I setup my rod and got ready to rock and roll. I was impressed how deep this little run was and kept at it for about 20 minutes working my way from bottom to top. I was making my couple last casts when Boom, a good take and hook set. Now… this is where the fun/panic/hand-shaking began. This fish ran so fast down the river that I got some rope burn as I tried to feed the 10 feet of slack into the reel that were on my feet. This fish ran my into my backing a long ways before it stopped. It felt like I had hooked the bumper of a car! When it stopped I was sure it had me on a log or something as I could not move it even after a couple of minutes or pulling back and forth to near line breaking tension. I could feel some movement so I thought again, maybe he’s still on but on the other side of the obstruction so I started to head back into the water and downstream into some not-so nice water. When I got about 40 feet down, bam, the fish made another incredible run downstream taking like like crazy! Then, just like before, it stopped dead. I moved the rod back and forth and put a ton of pressure on the fish and thought, damn he’s got me on another log! Like before I could feel something but couldn’t move it. I worked my way downstream again another 40-50 feet and was sure this time I was going to break off. When I got there, I almost crapped my pants when the fish took off upstream towards me. I realized it wasn’t getting me into obstruction, this fish was a monster! For a moment I thought maybe it’s a pike, but what would a pike be doing in water as fast as this? No, it’s not a pike! My hands start to shake… After the fish ran towards me it stopped again out in front of me about 60 feet. I held a ton of pressure on it and slowly it started to move towards me. After a while of this I saw it come to the surface about 20 feet out and immediately saw what I couldn’t believe. It was a massive Bull trout! For years I have been saying, one day I would really like to break the 30” mark for a trout. Today was that day! Very slowly I dragged the bull closer and closer and realized he wasn’t fighting hardly at all, he was just so friggin heavy my 6 weight couldn’t move him in any faster. When I got him a rods length out I struggled like crazy to get him close enough to try and tail him. My rod was literally folding in half! I considered just breaking my line to not over wear out this guy but I wanted a chance to gauge his size as he was certainly the biggest I have caught. I gave it one more try and was able to grab the leader with my left hand and pull the fish alongside me. I was able to get a finger carefully under his gill plate so I had some leverage. I quickly took my rod and placed it above him from tail to head and he reached from the butt to just over the first snake. I immediately grabbed the fly that was in his top lip and gave it a downward twist… the fish turned to deeper water and disappeared. I measured my rod and its 32” from Butt to first snake so I estimated this fish between 33 and 35”! No I know lots of you guys go for big bulls so this isn’t that big of a deal. For me this was an experience and fish of my lifetime! Things learned/remembered: New water/exploration is the best! 6 weight rods are too small for some fish on the bow Try hard enough and good things will happen… eventually The bow is a place where dreams can come true! Quote
duanec Posted April 23, 2010 Posted April 23, 2010 awesome. great way to beat the crowded river blues. Quote
Swede Posted April 23, 2010 Posted April 23, 2010 Epic story Kungfool, would have been fun to watch that take place. Quote
birchy Posted April 23, 2010 Posted April 23, 2010 Awesome!! As I was reading I thought "this sounds really familiar".. I know the feeling of pulling that hard and thinking you're caught on a log or something, only to have it take off again. Mine was a bully as well.. except it was ONLY ~29". Well done, sir. Quote
brewingup Posted April 23, 2010 Posted April 23, 2010 You got my blood pumping just reading that. Congrats on the fish of a lifetime! You forgot to mention exactly where you were, what you were using, time of day, etc... meh. just PM me was also gonna say... i fish the elbow a lot and one thing i like is how much the river changes year to year after runoff. New / different runs, holes, logs, etc. Keeps it interesting and challenging. Exploring new stuff is a lot of fun! Quote
bloom Posted April 23, 2010 Posted April 23, 2010 No I know lots of you guys go for big bulls so this isn’t that big of a deal. For me this was an experience and fish of my lifetime! I don't care how many big fish anyone's ever caught in thier life. A 30"+ trout is still a BIG fish and a highlight...congrats. Fish of a lifetime is right. Awesome. Quote
Heimdallr Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Great post and story! Good on ya, makes me want to hit the water. Quote
darrinhurst Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Awesome story! Certainly a dream of mine. Now I'm reconsidering the new 6wt Launch I got for Christmas as my go to Bow rod....... Quote
LynnF Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 The way you told that story made the hair on my arms stand on end by the time I got to where you said what it was!!! Tell ya what...I'm heading out on Sunday....I'll catch him and take a picture for ya mkay? LOL Quote
ladystrange Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 that's awesome. hell of day and hell of a fish Quote
SteveM Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Cool story, Kevin; well done! That, right there, is what it's all about. :bow: :bow: Quote
monger Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Great story. I love it when your 6wt feels inadequate! Quote
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