I was fishing a local reservoir yesterday (Birch Creek for those of
you who live in Utah) for Tiger Trout (a hatchery hybrid between
Brook and Brown Trout). I had never caught this particular variety
before and my fishing buddy , who had experienced a great day of
fishing for Tiger's on this same reservoir a couple of weeks earlier,
said catching one was a "sure thing".
We started fishing around 7:30 AM and and by 10:30 hadn't even had a
strike. We could see big schools on the fish finder but they were
pretty deep in the warm 70 degree water, but they weren't eating. In
spite of the warm water, we decided to fish the shallows near some
weed beds and were encouraged to see a heavy Calibaetis hatch
underway. My buddy immediately began catching fish on a small Wooly
Bugger pattern with a green bead.
I put on some smaller patterns without the bead but wasn't getting
anything. My buddy offered me some of his flies, but my pride said
"no". I tried on a few more without much success and after he had
caught his sixth fish, I swallowed my pride, rigged up with his
pattern and quickly had a fish on. Fishing was pretty fast for 13"
to 15" Tigers when suddenly a twenty-six inch monster took my fly!
It was a long battle on my five weight rod and to make matters worse
I didn't have a net (normally I just bring the smaller fish in
quickly and pop them off the barbless hooks).
Landing the fish was a big problem. I tried grabbing the tail but
this fish was two slippery. I tried lifting the entire fish on the
stripping apron but it would flip off. Finally, in desperation, I
carefully slipped my fingers under its gill plate and found there was
a lot of room and it was pretty easy to avoid touching the gills.
We snapped a few pictures, revived it the best we could and let it
swim away.
I was excited to catch such a big fish but felt bad that I was
unprepared to do a better job to help it survive. I seriously
considered keeping it, afraid in might die no matter what I did
(because of the warm water) but I didn't have anything to keep it in.
My buddy says "Well, if you kept it it would be dead for sure, at
least this way it has a chance for survival." That's true enough, I
guess.
Here are a couple of pictures I have posted if you are interested in
seeing the fish:
http://homepage.mac.com/tsmd/PhotoAlbum23.html
Tom
My Daughter's Name Art website: www.wishberrie.com
Home Page: http://homepage.mac.com/tsmd
Webshots Albums: http://community.webshots.com/user/tsmdav
