I hold no false ideas of their trophy status. Nevertheless it is still fun to catch one! For one thing, there aren't all that many. So there is that. For the other, they are big. "What?!" I've only caught two ever. One was a brook trout male last year--on a spinner. Huge kype, nice deep colouring, and about 18" but only from rod marks. This year fly fishing, a female rainbow at 20" and 3.74 lbs, weighed at my tackle shop. Yes, I might even end up in the paper. That's part of the fun.
This fish (or more correctly, this attempt that led to this fish!) was fun because it took two sessions to land it. It started on the day that turned out to be the new opening day. I was fishing a TMA when, by happenstance, I decided to call a friend while I was at the stream. There were a lot of people out. It was a lot for preseason--and there were a lot of people below the demarcation bridge--which is not by itself unusual (this happens every year in the days leading up to opening day. Some even get citations for it.) During the phone call I learned that it was now open season!
There are certain lies in the river that, even though it is a stocked trout stream, are quite reliable at attracting fish. Not from the bucket landing there (there are those spots too) but from good trout features. I had already fished it a few days earlier working upstream--and seen three trout chasing each other there. But hadn't caught one. This time I did the downstream approach which works because of the riffle texture and the perfect rock to hide behind. Streamer fishing for stockers.
It didn't take long to get a taker on one of my strange streamers. I hooked up and after a normal tip lift, thought I had a good set, and was stripping in against a good load, when the fish went sideways underwater and popped the hook. It was fairly deep and I couldn't identify it. Some minutes and many swings later, I had a great surprise--a fish "slammed" the streamer so hard that it stripped the line out of my line hand! It was a really strong pull--bluefish pull--not trout pull! Lost it.
I tried again for a while and then rested the pool, then tried again at dusk. I went home skunked--and fish crazed.
The next morning I went straight back out, but the night before, I tied this ridiculous woolly bugger, using the chenille that I have *never* caught a single fish on, ever. But I made every part a different colour. Let's call it the "Calico Woolly."
In less than 15 minutes, I had the fish in hand! (When I say "the" it is worth noting that it may very well not be the ones or twos I lost the day before.) But the take wasn't a slam, and in fact the fish was remarkably docile. It really didn't seem to realize the trouble it was in for. As I picked it up, a good 1/4 pound of eggs came out. So maybe then when it was too late, it knew! It even did the docile calm upside down trick nicely in the shallows.
Weighed in at 3.74 lbs and 20" long, it is in fact both the longest and heaviest trout I have recorded. I have a lot more fishing to do to catch a proper "trophy" but the wild fish that I have caught the past few years have all been trophies to me, regardless of size.
I took this "huge" fish home and we had two dinners out of it! First, baked with thyme. That is a good way to make fish. Salt, pepper, thyme inside. No filleting, just head off. The thyme is on the belly flap meat when you remove it to eat so it is especially tasty. This fish was good. It wasn't tough, or muddy, or lacking texture. I was pleasantly surprised.
For the second meal we pulled the meat off the bones and made a trout chowder. Of course that was good--chowder is almost always good!
