Beastly Brownie
After finishing another rod and repairing another I treated myself to an hour on the local stream. I decided at the last minute to fish a stretch that I hadnt fully explored this year and arrived to find clouds of Mayflies for the first time. Sure the odd one or two had hatched in the last couple of weeks but not like this. As I approached the river I could tell the fish were on them – fish exploding out of the water in almost every pool.
I walked downstream and entrered the river after battling through nettles and was instantly rewarded with a great size fish right in front of me, unfortunately it shook the hook and I never saw it properly. After fishing the bend ahead I’d caught 3 trout of average size for this stream (8-12oz).
I could see fish rising in the next pool and cast at one, he instantly obliged to my mayfly imitation as a big pair of lips came up for the fly. Turns out it was an out of season chub of about 4lb which put up an impressive and arm wrenting scrap on my little 4wt! After a quick photo, back he went.
After thinking I hadnt seen a such a bend in this little cane rod for a long time, I rounded the next bend to an almighty splash. I quickly dried my fly and cast to the fish, just as it came up for another natural – I prayed I hadnt put the fish down and next cast I found out I hadnt. The trout came up for the fly and instanly dived back down to the depths – where after a few quick runs and heavy lunges it stayed, until I finally managed to slip the net under it.
Absolutely amazed at what lay in the net I quickly hooked the spring balance onto the net and then looked around for a platform to take a nice photo. Unfortunately the high banks prevented this and so I had to settele for a steep slope just above the waters edge. I lay the fish in the net just long enough to get one photo before one flick of it’s tail and it was back in the water – not the release the fish deserved and perhaps not the photo such a fish commanded.
2.5lb of Brown Trout. My biggest from the stream and a true monster for this particular water. To give you some idea I have since measured the net where the fish is lay and its over 15 inches – nearer 16 from tail to snout. A fish I wont forget for a while!
Cheers
AR…
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