28-inch Spawning Colors Rainbow

[Phil Lilley]

Not sure how to title this one.

Went out this morning to get a baseline for a fishing report - try some things.  They are running one unit of water, lake level 705.3 feet.  I didn't get out till about 9 a.m. - boated up to just above the Narrows in the trophy area.

I threw some jigs -- black, sculpin and olive -- with only a couple of bites.  The midges were hatching in clouds and rainbows were taking them along the current edges close to the bluff bank.  I didn't have my fly rod in the boat or I would have been throwing a small dry.

I wanted to try one more thing before heading back -- a bead.  We use beads in Alaska to catch big rainbows during the salmon spawning season and I'd been experiment with them here.

You peg the bead, which comes in various sizes and colors, to your line about 2 inches above a small hook.  Then you pinch a small split shot above the bead about 2 feet.  I was using 4 pound line.  Throw it out and drift it like you would any fly or bait.  Bump it on the bottom.

I picked up 2 small rainbows and had 3 more good strikes.  Both rainbows had the hook in its mouth, not outside of it.

Then I thought, let's do a comparison.  So I boated back up to the top of the Narrows and drifted a #12 grey scud (200R hook) using the same split shot.  Caught one small rainbow right off the bat.  Then got a good strike, then another.  I thought it would be about the same result.  But towards the end of the faster water, I hooked something that surprised me.

Why surprise?  Well, I wasn't ready for something to pull hard enough to break my line, plus my drag wasn't set for it either.  Nor did I have my anti-reel switched so I couldn't reel backwards like I usually do.  Luckily, my line held up as the drag started to slip a little.  Then I was able to flip the switch and reel backwards.

It was a good fish but the hard fast run fooled me.  I didn't think it was as big as it was.  It stayed deep for almost the entire fight, making 3 long runs and fought hard close to the boat to stay down. 

I grabbed the Gopro, turned it on and set it up on the bar.  The video shows the fight towards the middle to the end, not the long runs.

I netted the fish but kept it in the water.  I called Duane at the resort and asked him to come up with the camera to take some pics.  He was on a room repair mission so it took a while for him to boat up to where I was.  I drifted down to a spot on the bank where I could get out with the fish.  It's way too hard to get good, SAFE pics of a trophy trout while in a boat.  I say safe for the fish, not me.  I didn't want to raise the rainbow out of the water unless it was for a few quick pictures.

The color of this big sow were incredible!  I was blessed to have landed and released.  I did get a measurement, marking my spinning rod against her length while in the net.  I set it on a measuring board and was surprised to see it was 28.25 inches long.  It didn't seem that long in the water.

The release.....

 

 

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[rainbow]

Beautiful fish.  Great job keeping it in the water to fight another day.

[Ham]

That's a MONSTER! You Da Man! That's Fantastic!

[laker67]

Wow! Great looking fish. 

[netboy]

Beautiful fish. Good job on the release!

Congrats....

 

[Quillback]

Very nice!

[Gavin]

Awesome Catch! Good for you!

[Johnsfolly]

Phil

Great fish! For many of us that is a trout of a lifetime. Congrats!

[jdmidwest]

Nice fish.

I have a ton of beads left over from Alaska trips, but have never tried them here.  Hard to find a nest of salmon eggs to mimic here in MO.  But they sure worked charms on Dollies and Rainbows in Alaska.

[Ozarks Chillbilly]

What a stunner of a Rainbow, nice work! Proper catch & release is encouraging, too. Hopefully I can land a few this weekend