My brothers and I have spent many years chasing big trout. We have caught a number of browns over 24" on hardware back in the day, but the extra large trout have escaped us on streamers. We've hooked them, but there is a reason those trout reach that size. There is a world of difference between the fight of a 22" stream brown, and a 25". A stream brown over 24" becomes a different animal. As the weather starts to break in March, our annual "hunt" for these fish begins. Winter isn't going away easy this year (2" of fresh snow so far this morning, and its still coming down) so its been a slow start. About a week ago, we made our first float in big fish water. We weren't on the water long when my 7" leech pattern was struck hard. I felt the weight of a good fish, along with big headshakes. The large golden flashes of the fish down deep made us all think we had our first shot at one of those extra large trout. That was until it got closer to surface, exposing a wide mouth full of teeth. Stupid walleye! At 27", it was my biggest fly caught walleye, so I couldn't be that mad. The water we are fishing doesn't have many trout, but it has some big ones. You won't see many fish this time of year. The good thing is, if you do move a fish, its usually a good one. Later in the float my younger brother hooks a one of those trout we are looking for. And like every other huge trout in the last 5 or so years, it finds a way to come off. We press on and my older brother gets a nice 20" fish. Not a bad fish, but not really what we are looking for. The rest of the day is uneventful. Its a fairly small window when these big trout can be caught on streamers. With growing families, it makes it tough to get out as much as we'd like. A get together "up north" would give an opportunity to float the same water a week later. Unfortunately, my older brother had to back out. A good friend would join us instead. The water was much dirtier than expected. We considered fishing a different river, but we decided to take our chances in the low visibility. Not long into the float we started to question our decision. Finally, after an hour or so, I lost a decent fish in that 20" range. That got our hopes up a little. A few minutes later our friend had a big fish boil on his fly, but never made an attempt to eat it. The mood in the boat was definitely improving, and each cast and retrieve was made with more effort. With in sight of the bend that held the last fish, I stuck something solid. I lifted and felt the weight of a heavy fish. It started to roll and we got a glimpse of the large trout. The boat became semi-chaotic as a group effort ensued to land the fish. Finally, it was in the net. She is the longest and heaviest stream brown I have landed. We've hooked a few bigger that managed to get away, but this fish was special. The sense of accomplishment and emotions we felt was more than I expected. I say "we" because fishing big streamers from a drift boat is a group effort. Everyone needs to be on the same page. This was not "my" fish, it was "our" fish. I imagine this is what it will feel like if I ever take a big buck someday. It felt like so many years of hard work had payed off.
Awesome story, awesome pics. A day like that lasts in the memory long after many other memories are gone forever. Congratulations!!!
Fantastic story and pics Matt! I remember feeling like that when I caught my first (and only) 20 inch smallmouth bass in the river. I fished for 5 years with thousands of hours on the water to catch that type of fish. I was ecstatic. LOVE the fishing pics.
Congrats on an Awesome Brown Matt. 2 more weeks! That walleye sure would look good next to a plate full of slaw and fries!
Thanks guys. We guestimated in the 8lb range. It had a lot of girth. I can't wait! Not a fan of that water being open early. We are still waiting for our annual trip the first week of May. Something special about getting to the river for the first time, with warm spring air, those yellow flowers along the bank, and hennies dribbling off.
I know what you mean about the big browns.....for that matter, the big steelhead... or for that matter...all those beastly fish. I hooked into a mega brown on the Salmon River last fall. I played him and played him. Took me forever just to get him off the bottom and moving. I worked him out of the current and he came up to give me a big flash. After what seemed like forever he had revealed himself. And THEN...... he was gone. Broke my heart. Real small hook. I pulled it in anc checked my fly.... the damn hook broke. I was ticked at my brother for tying me a fly with such a crappy cheap hook. LOL I was just using a little salmon flea looking for a Steelhead. But, he was a magnanomous fish. The next day, the same fly, the same hook.... I got into one of those monster steelhead. Fought him forever, took me down stream about 200 yards, worked him into a calm spot and poof... the hook broke. Damn Gamakatsu cheap azzzzzzzzzzed hooks anyway. LOL My brother said it's a sorry fisherman that blames his equipment. The next day he had one break on a big steelhead.LOL Nice fish pictures Vito....real nice. I saw a salmon slammer land one of those monster browns last year. He had a dang spinning real with about 25 pound test line on it. I thought it was a salmon when I saw him walking out with it.... then I saw it was the biggest brown I ever saw even in pictures. It was easily pushing 30 inches. I have NO idea why he'd kill a fish like that.
David...bummer on the big brown. Sucks you lost it because the hook broke! I've caught a few big lake run browns in my life. The largest pushing 15 lbs. This stream brown kind of looked like a lake run, being it was so fat. It lived above two large dams, so it had to be a resident.
