Big One Got Away

[laker67]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

Ol' Jack B. was working a monster brown at the High bank hole years ago that was laying in a shadow so he couldn't see his fly.  He finally gave up and headed back to his car, so after he got out of the way I stepped in and on about the 5th drift that sow gobbled up my little ginger nymph.  Jack heard me holler at my wife (at the time) that I had a lunker on, and he came over and stood on the hill watching. The fight was lengthy and during the end of the battle the tippet had gotten looped around a pectoral fin.  Jack started throwing a fit saying "it's foul hooked, it's foul hooked" and just kept on bitching at me.  Finally when I got it landed I told him "come here and look ! " 

No I ain't coming down there, he said, I can see it from here.   So I unlooped the tippet from it's fin and I said SEE ! 

He goes, "Oh BS, you unhooked it and stuck it in the jaw".   That old SOB,  I wanted to throw a rock at him.   I had sent my wife up to the park store to grab one of those disposable cameras so I could get a picture before releasing it, but I got so pissed at that old peckerhead that as soon as the fish could hold itself upright I just released it.  No idea what it would have weighed or measured but it was darn near as long as my leg.  That's the biggest trout I have ever landed, and thanks to that old curmudgeon I never even got a picture of it.  🙄

Not sure why, but browns are notorious for wrapping line. It is either on the fin, around the gill plate, or as is the case with smaller fish, they will actually tie a half hitch around their head and gill plate. Must be in the way they turn back or something. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

38 minutes ago, laker67 said:

Not sure why, but browns are notorious for wrapping line. It is either on the fin, around the gill plate, or as is the case with smaller fish, they will actually tie a half hitch around their head and gill plate. Must be in the way they turn back or something. 

I rolled a big brown at McCs and after a real short fight i pulled it right in.  He had a half hitch of my leader around his snoot and couldn’t open his mouth.  Easiest lunker I’ve ever gotten in.  

[Johnsfolly]

I never fished the hey day that you guys are talking about. I have lost a few large browns over the years. I fished two years using Fusion line. It would get brittle and often fray at the knot when I was fishing those floating raps and bounce them off rocks. Fusion was worse than mono.

I made the perfect cast into a sweeping bend of the river. I lost contact with my bait. A large brown jumped about 25 feet upstream from me with my bait in its mouth. It broke me off without me even feeling the strike. It jumped three times getting closer every jump. The last one was 6 to 8 feet in front of me. I was hoping that I could have caught it in my net. Never saw it again.

I was fishing another spot well upstream of the access point in my favorite trout river. I came to an "S" bend in the river with a large wood pile on one side. The largest brown trout that I have seen in that river swam upstream. It was at least 26 to 28 inches in length. I didn't make any casts and tried to stay out of view. I headed upstream and planned to get back to that hole later. A couple of hours later I headed back down to that hole. I came in from a different angle and crept up to that hole. I had on rapala countdown. I cast upstream of that log pile. I made two slight jerks and got pounded. The brown porpoised and its tail was twice the size of my hand.  The fish turned and ran towards me and threw the bait with a big head shake.

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

I never fished the hey day that you guys are talking about.

No matter what you are into......it was always better BACK IN THE DAY !   😄

[BilletHead]

57 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

No matter what you are into......it was always better BACK IN THE DAY !   😄

            I was back in the day a couple of times. It was also when I should of been there yesterday,

BilletHead

[fshndoug]

It is always fun to watch Laker get on a nice trout. That fish is in trouble if it sticks around.It always gets released and maybe a little wiser than before.

[Mitch f]

The only fish I’ll regret forever is a huge smallmouth. I was fishing with Seagaur Carbon Pro 100% fluorocarbon line in 12 pound test using a wiggle wart.  My buddy Zipstick and I were fishing and we passed by a gentleman sitting right exactly at the spot we wanted to fish. We went about a mile or so past him and started fishing. Around 2 hours later we ran back upstream and he was still in the exact same spot, not even 10 yards difference.  We turned around and went back downstream. About an hour later it started to rain softly. We decided to go back up closer to the ramp. 

We noticed that he wasn’t there anymore and decided to fish the hole the guy had been fishing. As we approached from downstream, Nick shut the motor off and trolled upstream quietly to the spot. We had made about 3 or 4 casts and we’re working our way up to the riffle and I noticed a big black carp right up against the bank just out of the current. I told Nick, look at that big carp. He didn’t even look over. Threw my wart 2-3 feet in front and to my amazement the carp came directly to my bait and flared his big red gills to swallow my bait. Turns out that big black carp was a huge smallmouth. As soon as I saw the wart disappear I set the hook. All in one big motion he made a big head shake and snapped my line on the hook set.  I estimated that fish to be 22” or more. I gave up Seagaur at that point and for years only fished Yozuri Hybrid. I’m back fishing Seagaur InvizX now. 

I don’t think I will ever fish 2 pound test anymore no matter what, unless I’m at a trout park or something like that. Even after all these good comments, I don’t think it is necessary.

 

Happy Posting and I’m back into posting retirement.

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

Happy Posting and I’m back into posting retirement

Why have you retired from posting ?    Is this one of those Brian Wise things where you are afraid of negatively effecting your image ?  😂

[ness]

15 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Why have you retired from posting ?    Is this one of those Brian Wise things where you are afraid of negatively effecting your image ?  😂

Might be because of sh*t like that...

[Mitch f]

18 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Why have you retired from posting ?    Is this one of those Brian Wise things where you are afraid of negatively effecting your image ?  😂

 

3 minutes ago, ness said:

Might be because of monkey dodo like that?

I get into habits of watching my phone for hours at a time when I should do something productive. I have had the stomach virus this past week and I got a notification yesterday on my IPhone that I averaged 6 hours per day.....scared the BGeez out of me!