King Of The Pool

[Apache Trout]

Worked about 3/4 of the day on Monday the 5th. Couldn't take the heat anymore so I hit up a Connecticut Class 1 Wild Trout Stream about 4pm.
Air temp in the 90's, stream temp 59. Wading was, well, can you say "REFRESHING"! Ahhh..... so nice...... :)
Started off fishing a #18 black ant and then a #18 peacock mountain caddis with 7x on my Hardy Glass 6 ft. 3 wt. through these fishy looking spots-




Guess the heat was throwing me off my game as I was snagging trees, losing flies, getting my tippet caught in my vest zippers, birds nests, you name it I did it. :evil:
Missed a few risers- :cry:


With nothing to show for my poor efforts I headed downstream about 6:30 to fish another section of river with some deeper pools.
Decided to upgrade to 6x and a #16 Murray's Professor-


Came to the top of an hour glass shaped deep pool around 7pm where the bottom section of the hour glass is about 4 times as long as the upper section. The neck separating the two sections about 4 feet wide.
Let the Professor drift through the upper section.........
The rest is a blur-
WHACK........ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's no 8" brookie...Holy ****
He put himself on the reel, what the???????
BIG FISH ON!
Don't let him get through the chute, have to stop.......
Come on my little "pea shooter" Hardy Glass 6ft 3wt you can turn him.
You can turn him...
He's gonna snap the tippet.
Come on don't go through there...
Phew!
Oh crap, ZZZZZZZ there he goes again....
Get back here.
Easy big fella, you done yet?
Guess not...
Look at the size of him!
Holy Cow!
Don't look at the bend in the rod, YIKES......
Come on, don't lose him.
Easy does it, easy does it.
Screw the brookie net, too big...
OK, wet your hands.
Snap the pic.
Needle nose, hook out...
Revive.
See you again my friend.
:)
My personal best for a CT Class 1 Wild Trout Stream.
17" of Wild Bottle Rocket Brown!


Some perspective, here is an 8 incher, normal size fish for this stream-

[Mostyn]

That's a nice fishing report; and you had me on the edge of my seat towards the end, just wondering if you were going to land this "Stream Leviathan" - Very exciting! I can empathise with you, I have had similar day's on our small stream, where you hook in to everything that surrounds you, including yourself! Then that good fish takes your fly; and your heart rate begins to quicken, because you know that the bigger stream fish, will snap your tippet - nine times out of ten!

Nice photos, but the photo of you 17in, fish does not do the fish justice! - It's a chubby one.

Thanks for sharing your exploit with us!

Mostyn

[Apache Trout]

Thanks Mostyn. :)
Yeah, my fish photos are usually not good at all as my top priority is to get the fish right back in water and revived, especially on a CT Class 1 Wild C&R only stream. Most times I don't even take any but this one I had to.
This fish fought tremendously and my goal was to keep him from going through the chute into the larger section of the pool. He would have probably rubbed the line up against one of the boulders or once in the lower section, wrapped me around some submerged tree roots. An unexpected surprise for sure and the little Hardy came through. Though the next time I fish that section, I'll be using a slightly larger rod, just in case. :)
A.T.

[ofuros]

Resident top dog on a small rod,
sounds like he gave you a run for your money....well done.

[Apache Trout]

ofuros, a run for my money and then some. :)

[greyfox]

Very nice, I love those surprises especially when you have your camera

[skyfireblaze]

Great post! That's a trophy fish on some beautiful water for sure. Nice work.

It's funny how on days when you're catching everything but fish, finally catching one can make all the difference on how the day is remembered -- even more so when it's a fish like you've got there. I'm looking forward to the day I have an experience comparable to yours ... :clap:

[BrkTrt]

AT,

Thats one rippin good brown.

Well done friend,



Brk Trt

[Apache Trout]

Thanks guys. :)
Went back tonight to same area. Had another good wild trout on but this one took my sulfur and wrapped me around a stump!
Who knows, maybe it was my friend getting his revenge. ;-)

[Satoshi]

Congratulations on catching the monster of the stream, and thank you for posting!
I was rather reluctant to go fishing in these days because of hot and humid climate, but your report have made me want to go fishing again :D

Satoshi