I Lost A Monster Brown...

[acct421]

Well here I am 10:30 PM last night swinging some dry flies to no avail, so after a while I try switching to a streamer. I have a 8lb tapered leader and a 6lb tippet. So I figure, hey, its dark and windy I think the 6lb will do for streamers. You can see where this is going...

 

I put the Bow river bugger on, first cast I see a massive tail flop behind my streamer and I am ecstatic! Seems like he missed it so I cast again and sure enough I get a really hard hit. The first thing the fish does is flop out of the water scaring the *hit out of me with its sheer size, and then starts making a hard run downstream. My largest brown to date was 22" and this was much bigger.

 

The minute I saw that fish jump out I knew I had a dilemma:

 

1. Right away, I knew the fish was too much for my tippet. So do I tire the fish out and bring it in and cross my fingers it recovers.

 

2. Or If I don't want to tire the fish out and pull harder, then my tippet snaps and that leaves the fish with a big wooly bugger in its mouth.

 

So after 10 minutes I am well into my backing and I know I have no chance at all of bringing this thing in. Call me a noob (which I am) but I was pulling as hard as I thought my tippet could handle. The fish was pulling much harder however. So I decide to try give it a lot of slack in the hopes that it will free itself from the fly, cause in all seriousness this fish wasn't coming in for A WHILE and at that point a large tired fish like that is as good as dead.

 

So I kept trying to create a lot of slack line in hopes that he will go free. Not working. OK so at that point I think, well I'll try get it in and release it quick, cause that woolly bugger seemed to be stuck in there. Well after another 10 mins he gets in close, and as I am trying to land, he makes a last hard pull and I hear the noise no fisherman ever wants to hear. ZING.

 

At this point I got so sad. I could care less that I didn't land the fish but that thing was tired, and had a big fly in its mouth. Its probably at the bottom of the river belly up now, and that just makes me want to cry for the fight that thing gave me.

 

Never again do I venture into my streamer box without a 12+lb line on there. What a brutal night, and I still feel like *hit.

 

What would you guys do if you were caught off guard by a big fish using light tackle?

[Gil]

Well here I am 10:30 PM last night swinging some dry flies to no avail, so after a while I try switching to a streamer. I have a 8lb tapered leader and a 6lb tippet. So I figure, hey, its dark and windy I think the 6lb will do for streamers. You can see where this is going...

 

I put the Bow river bugger on, first cast I see a massive tail flop behind my streamer and I am ecstatic! Seems like he missed it so I cast again and sure enough I get a really hard hit. The first thing the fish does is flop out of the water scaring the *hit out of me with its sheer size, and then starts making a hard run downstream. My largest brown to date was 22" and this was much bigger.

 

The minute I saw that fish jump out I knew I had a dilemma:

 

1. Right away, I knew the fish was too much for my tippet. So do I tire the fish out and bring it in and cross my fingers it recovers.

 

2. Or If I don't want to tire the fish out and pull harder, then my tippet snaps and that leaves the fish with a big wooly bugger in its mouth.

 

So after 10 minutes I am well into my backing and I know I have no chance at all of bringing this thing in. Call me a noob (which I am) but I was pulling as hard as I thought my tippet could handle. The fish was pulling much harder however. So I decide to try give it a lot of slack in the hopes that it will free itself from the fly, cause in all seriousness this fish wasn't coming in for A WHILE and at that point a large tired fish like that is as good as dead.

 

So I kept trying to create a lot of slack line in hopes that he will go free. Not working. OK so at that point I think, well I'll try get it in and release it quick, cause that woolly bugger seemed to be stuck in there. Well after another 10 mins he gets in close, and as I am trying to land, he makes a last hard pull and I hear the noise no fisherman ever wants to hear. ZING.

 

At this point I got so sad. I could care less that I didn't land the fish but that thing was tired, and had a big fly in its mouth. Its probably at the bottom of the river belly up now, and that just makes me want to cry for the fight that thing gave me.

 

Never again do I venture into my streamer box without a 12+lb line on there. What a brutal night, and I still feel like *hit.

 

What would you guys do if you were caught off guard by a big fish using light tackle?

You can bring in some pretty big fish on 6 lb tippet. One trick is to make him turn sideways into the current as fast as you can by putting your rod on its side, so that your have tension torwards shore. Is hard for a fish to fight if he's sideways in the current. Note: this only works if you turn him quickly. Once you get a lot of line out you can't turn him. Also if you are in fast water run down stream into softer water.

[acct421]

Well with the river all swollen up, the first thing he did is jump in the fastest water so I found it really hard. Maybe something is wrong with my technique but I was giving it all I thought the tippet could handle at the time.

[Gil]

Well with the river all swollen up, the first thing he did is jump in the fastest water so I found it really hard. Maybe something is wrong with my technique but I was giving it all I thought the tippet could handle at the time.

Sometime no matter what you do you are going to be out of luck....

[headscan]

I think 10lb maxima is all you'll ever need for streamers on the bow. Unless it gets cut or your knot is bad you won't find many fish around here that'll break you off.

[Guest Jeremie]

That really sucks, but after the point where i couldn't break him off and he kept pulling i wouldve brought him in and held him in the water and let him revive. There is a much better chance of survival for those fish if you let the rest and take a longer release because i've heard that even breaking a fish off can result in enough shock generated from the line snapping to injure the fish or even kill it. Not sure if its true or not, but i know for long hard fought battles with salmon and steelhead you want to take a while releasing the fish.

 

Just my 2 cents!

 

Its not so much your fault i wouldnt feel as bad as you are describing it. Hes territorial, so go back on another night and try it again. You can find out if he's passed on or if he's still there.

 

He's big... he's probably been hooked before, or he's very smart... how else would he get so big.

 

Dont worry man!

 

Tight lines!

[duanec]

What would you guys do if you were caught off guard by a big fish using light tackle?

i usually swear alot.

[Guest Jeremie]

i usually swear alot.

 

Ditto.

[chiasson]

Never again do I venture into my streamer box without a 12+lb line on there.

 

Sounds like shitty circumstances beyond your control, don't feel bad.

 

I'd agree with you that 6 is prob too light in high or dirty water or when the possibility is there to hook a real monster. In addition, it's much easier to turn over bigger flies on stouter tippet. However, while I'm sure that it doesn't really matter if you go crazy big on your tippet because a trout that will take a big streamer prob aint gonna be leader shy, at the same time 12# or greater is prob overkill. My first thought is what if you get hooked up on something, which is pretty common on the Bow, you may mess up your line trying to free your fly. Knowing that out east most guys fish 8-12 lb Maxima for Atlantic Salmon where the average fish size is 12lbs, 8 or 10 test combined with a quality drag has got to be adequate for even the biggest of Bow trout. I've personally have never had a problem with 8lb (3x powerflex) on trout up to 2.5 pounds. I'd be curious to know what others think.

[BBBrownie]

6lb maxima is tough stuff, but I always go 8 swinging on the bow. I don't think I have had a break off on 8lb maxima, but had a few on 6. I find large streamers to be selective for large fish, that combined with turbid water points to a heavier tippet. I wouldn't ever go over 8lb though, if you snag something you may have trouble breaking heavier tippet, depending on strength of your fly line/backing/knots. Easy to break lighter rods with too heavy tippet. I certianly wouldn't go 10-12lb maxima, big time overkill, have landed steelhead and chinook over 20lbs on 12 lb maxima in big water.