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| ...Brown Fish... |
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| ...RAINBOW! |
My last outing on the river was another quicky. I spied two fish feeding less than 5 feet apart in a tiny current seam and figured there was no way I could pull both out of there. Once I hooked one it's fight was sure to spook the other, but I went to work on the downstream fish just on the off chance it would not bolt upstream and spook that fish if I hooked it. It took about 5 minutes of casting over this fish before I got everything right and it picked my tiny transitional midge out of the buffet line of naturals floating through the seam. As it took the fly and I put pressure on it the fish just happened to turn and bolt straight downstream practically swimming straight into my net. The fight lasted all of 5 seconds, if that. It was a very nice 20" brown.
As I revived that fish and watched it swim away I stole a glance up to the seam, and sure enough that other fish was still feeding away as if nothing had happened. This one only took two casts. As soon as the hook dug into the fish's lip it took me on a ride. This fish had 10 times the fight of the previous one, but I couldn't really tell if it was actually that big, or if it just was feeling spunky. It bolted downstream spooking a pod of three feeding fish below me, then headed upstream threatening to wrap my tippet around an exposed boulder. Finally it settled into a pocket behind a large rock and slugged it out. As I brought the fish in close I saw why this fish had so much more fight than the previous fish. It wasn't larger, not by a long shot, but it was one of the few rainbows that inhabit this stream. And there is no comparison in how they fight. The browns in this river are sluggish and slow. Especially the large ones. The rainbows, apparently are not. It was only the second rainbow I have ever landed on this river this year, and I have fished here quite a bit.
I was quite happy with the days results as I watched the 15" football shaped bow slide from my net back into the lazy current.
2 comments:
Benji,
Nice fish!
I'm curious on how you take these photographs? Are you using a tripod with some kind of remote activated timer or something?
P.S. how much snow is on the road along the river?
-Mark
Mark,
I have a small tripod that fits on my point and shoot camera. I have it set up near where I fish and the remote timer all set up so if I land a fish I want to snap a pic of I can keep it in the net, reach out, press the button, lift the fish, snap, and then back in the water it goes. It has been an easy way to capture those fish on solo trips.
I haven't been up the river in over a week now so I am not entirely sure about the road conditions, but I would assume with the recent rains we had it is fairly free of snow and ice at the moment. On the shaded stretches there could still be quite a bit of ice though. Last time I was up there it had just snowed recently so it was a bit treacherous, and slow going.
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