Best Fish Of The Year

[Pythagoras]

I was on Frenchmans Creek early August (first time there!) and watched a cuttie feeding in some riffles at the head of a larger pool....just a dimple in the waves...I listened to some advice from a friend (thanks Kai!) and tied on a green drake(ish) thing and floated it down the riffle. Well...SLAM...this fish took the fly and I set the hook....He was a larger fish for the creek I was fishing (better than 12"...possibly 14"?) and beat it hell bent for leather across the pool...my reel screaming and the fish almost 1/2 out of the water he ran the length of the pool...beautiful...controled (lol...not) long line release after that.....really, I sat, smoked and sighed....love this country.

[reevesr1]

Easy one. She's my avatar.

Springtime on the Bow, still a lot of ice around. I was having just an excellent morning. Most of the fish had been on the worm, a couple on a wolly bugger and nothing on whatever other nymph I was using. I decided to try a hare's ear. Tied on the new fly, and while making my first cast with it, slipped on a rock, missing my target by a couple of feet and leaving a lot of slack on the water. The drift looked really nice as the slack essentially made a great mend, and I decided that since I would have drifted that line eventually anyway to just let it go. I picked up a bit of the slack when the indicator bobbled. I set the hook, felt the pull back and really just laughed that I had hooked a fish on that POS cast. Until she jumped, then it wasn't so funny anymore.

 

After an intense, but shorter than I had envisioned fight (she got totally wrapped up in the line), I was landing the 26.5" Brown on the left. Oh, and on the hare's ear! She was so fat she looked like she had swallowed a 20" brown! My biggest trout to date.

 

I hope I get her twin this morning!

[126barnes]

It would have to be my first Atlantic ever. Sorry no pics of the actual fish, situation wasn't right for a photo, but heres a action shot.

 

 

[jksnijders]

Here's mine.. I recently started tying, and copied a pattern I saw called an RBE Emerger. Went out to Bullshead one day earlier this year and saw some decent fish feeding in shallow water about 4 feet from shore. Figured "what the hell" as they were taking from the surface, so I tied on this thing I (poorly) tied. Chucked it out and this fella nailed it. After I set the hook I kinda regretted using 5 x tippet as he freight trained me right through the weeds, and I thought for sure he would bust me off. Took a while to land, but taped at 20 inches. Not a huge fish, but nailing it on a fly I spun made it pretty memorable.

[Gil]

My biggest came this spring a 24-25 inch rainbow caught on a stone fly nymph. Took me to the backing twice. I also caught a 23 inch brown the next week.

[cam]

Here's mine.. I recently started tying, and copied a pattern I saw called an RBE Emerger. Went out to Bullshead one day earlier this year and saw some decent fish feeding in shallow water about 4 feet from shore. Figured "what the hell" as they were taking from the surface, so I tied on this thing I (poorly) tied. Chucked it out and this fella nailed it. After I set the hook I kinda regretted using 5 x tippet as he freight trained me right through the weeds, and I thought for sure he would bust me off. Took a while to land, but taped at 20 inches. Not a huge fish, but nailing it on a fly I spun made it pretty memorable.

 

Awesome dude ! There is something to be said for hooking fish of any size on flies you've tied with rods you've built in boats that come to fruition under your own steam. More oftern then not those things that don't come easily are that much sweeter when they arrive!

[Guest Jeremie]

my biggest fish this year was a 9 pound pink salmon that was about 32" and had help from my little brother netting him! I was a special moment for me and him! and as well as a 18" bull on my first cast on a dry on a special river!

[birchy]

22" rainbow on the Bow eariler this year. CDock and I were fishing this little drop off after a riffle and I figured I'd try and wade in below and cast upstream to it. Started stripping in the line as the indicator was coming towards me.. it hesitated for a minute so I set the hook and ziiiinnnnnng!

 

Landed this gorgeous rainbow in a spot I never expected a fish that big to be in.. Check this out.. a Bow River rainbow with NICE COLORS:

 

 

 

Feel free to mock me all you want over this picture.. I don't think I've ever looked so goofy in my life and I giggle everytime I see it!

[reevesr1]

Feel free to mock me all you want over this picture.. I don't think I've ever looked so goofy in my life and I giggle everytime I see it!

Damn you look goofy. Fish is nice though.

[maxwell]

my most memorable fish this year was today.. was fishing for a few smaller bulls in a pool in the mid 20's when i spotted a large shadow moving back out of the faster water into teh hole too check out what them smaller fish (still beauts!) were up too.. few moments later i was hooked up with a beast.. it was intence trying too stear her back into teh hole and some awsome death rolls... one time i thought my 7wt was going too be shrapnel in my face (never seen a 7wt bend liek that before, wish i had a pic of that a lil more but its hard too do solo) leaving me with nothing but my cork and reel... but it didnt happen thankfully and i was able too bring her too hand and too my surpise she was almost as long as my leg!

[Taco]

christ how long ur leg, 36"? helluva fish man

[tgo]

wow max thats unreal dude, nice fish

[petti]

maxwell that bully is a giant!!

my best fish of the year sofar was a bull i caught on the sheep not very big but it was my fisrt bull trout ever on a bow river bugger i tied so sick.....

[Hawgstoppah]

Geez my best fish of the year is the huge rainbow I got down close to home (30.5") in the srping at a private pond (not really a huge secret... palmer ranch)

 

Close second is all the big bulls from "That river in the kooteneys"

 

Some pics of them in the BC reports

[darrinhurst]

Well, since my "year" is a whole two months long, as is my "career", I would have to say that it's a tie on my first catch on a fly rod as seen here:

vs. my first on the dry, pictured here:

 

I also caught a nice little cuttie yesterday on a dry on the Oldman with Teck, Wish2Fish, tintin and Pablo. But nobody took my picture with it. lol

 

Anyway, I look forward to a solid September and hopefully a ton more pics of the many fish yet to come!

[WesG]

41" northern on the fly rod, unfortunately no pics... kind of hard as I was by myself and I didn't have the camera with me. Biggest fish on the fly rod to date though.

[Doubletap]

Ha ha - we don't grow trout (well, not trout that don't run to the sea, anyway!) quite as big as those that inhabit Alberta's flows!

 

However, I've hit a few that were memorable this year - though not all because of their size.

 

I think the prettiest (and about the biggest) was a Cutthroat I took at a rivers drainage into a large lake, on a 2wt with a Elk Hair Caddis.

 

One of my favorites was a Sea Run Cutty that I hit just up from tidewater, only a few days into January. It was such a cold, gray day and the Cut was such a ray of sunshine in the monochrome.

 

A first for me this year was a Dolly Varden. I don't have many "firsts" left, here on Vancouver Island - and this was a big one!

 

Lastly was a fish I didn't even catch. It was my girlfriend's first season on the flows, and she really found her groove with a 3wt. This one was one of her first.

 

But not her last - and they seem to keep getting bigger!

[Teck71]

My best is actually 4 small mouth bass, 1 dink,and 3 all over 3 pound taken after my father, told me that a fly rod is no way to fish for bass on the grand.

 

 

Teck

[Lawrence]

Still a bit early to call best fish of the year but here's where I stand

 

[woodfish]

Hands down, my best fish this year (possibly ever) is a bull caught down Livingstone-Oldman way in mid-July.

 

Big pool on a relatively small tributary. Standing on a ledge near the back of the pool in 6" of water, 8' drop off at my toes. Scratching my head, wondering why there were so many 12" to 14" cutties on the edge of the pool in 2' of water that wouldn't take anything I offered. Looked down and saw a shark cruise past, 1' below my toes and 1' out.

 

Backed off and waited 10 minutes. Tied 8' of mono to my floating line with a bunny leach. Lobbed the leach to the middle of the pool, waited 5 sec and gave it a twitch. Whammo!

 

Helluva fight, screaming around the pool and trying to keep it from going downstream. Scared like hell of busting my 4 wt! Good 5 minute fight and rewarded with a taped 26" bull trout. What a beauty!!! No pix, but I now take my camera and a fistfull of bunny leaches whenever I head down there.

 

Just discovered bunny leaches and I'm having a blast with them. Work up the pools with dries, wait, switch to a sink tip and a bunny then work back down. Catching a lot more of the bigger fish this way, but nothing like that bully. Swinging a 5 wt too, just in case.

[OneMoreLastCast]

My best fish of the year was a little 14 inch silver bullet from a lake in the Koots. It was the first fly tied by my 6 year old Daughter to catch a fish. A big 'ol Wooly Bugger....

 

I'll keep the picture of the fish to myself, but here she is tying the fly. fresh out of the shower. Hope she keeps the interest now.....

 

[snakeman]

For me it was an 18 inch brown in a small side channel on the upper Elbow. I stalked it for nearly 2 weeks, watching it's feeding patterns and throwing all I had at him until I finally got him on a prince. The fight was spectacular, he was dancing on the surface like a salmon, the thing had huge shoulders. Not the biggest fish I've caught but definitely one of the most memorable and satisfying.

[Keith]

This was the hardest fighting trout that I've ever caught. I had 2X on and I had the rod cranked over with side pressure, but I couldn't budge this fish. I thought for sure it was foul hooked, but when I brought it in the nymph was just sitting in the corner of it's jaw. It made some nice runs and came out of the water a couple of times, but it spent a lot of the long fight just hovering in behind rocks in the riffle where I caught it. It would take me minutes to budge it out of there before it would run and then do it all over again.

[humblefisherman]

It would have to be this old toad i managed to land last week. This was the oldest biggest Bull i have ever seen. We estimate him to be a tad over 20 pounds and had the face of an ugly old man. Took me down a huge stretch of white water and when i finally got close to him my jaw dropped. I imagine a fish this size would have to reside in the Bow most of the year.

[birchy]

Good lord Jay! That guy looks like he's ready to take on your dog!