11.25.2008

My Favorite River

My favorite river, the South Fork of the Snake, produces big fish. This I know for a fact. The biggest I have landed there was a 25" fish with a 14" girth that estimates at 6 pounds. That, it turns out, is just a baby. There are much bigger fish in the river. Idaho's state record brown trout until 2007 was a 26 1/2 pound fish caught there in 1981. I have tangled with a couple fish here that I would have just liked to get a look at before they busted me off. Both pulled like a freight train and made runs that were impossible to stop. Running upstream while our boat drifted downstream, I could only watch as line peeled off my reel, then shake my head when the *pop* came and 100 feet of slack line flew back over my head.

A post on Outdoors International today sent me daydreaming again of another float trip through "the Canyon." The fish pictured below was apparently released alive and well after being shocked up in a round of surveys by the Idaho Fish and Game this year. My crack staff is currently analyzing the data and should have the GPS coordinates nailed down by next summer.


(photo from Outdoors International)

2 comments:

Tom Sorenson said...

Wasn't that just a massive ol' guy? You really don't get the full appreciation for it either until you enlarge the photo - then it hits you just how big this fish is. That's a monster. Flat out.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I've seen that fish before. What a monster huh? Supposedly, my buddy who used to guide for the South Fork Lodge caught a true 30 incher there a few years ago.