BUGGIN OUT BIG BROWN TROUT!!

DATE: JUNE 12TH       TEMP: HOT     TIME: 5:00-7:00

Well, most of my weekend was spent celebrating my daughters 5th birthday and my wife's 29th birthday.    My daughter also had her first Dance Recital, and that took up a good portion of the weekend.  It was great to get to see all her practice and hard work pay off.  Such a cutie pie!!  Great job Sephora.  YOu Rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday was the last day of her recital, so I decided to bring my fishing gear along for afterwards.  I ended up getting out at about 5:00p.m.  I went to a local Brook Trout stream that holds quite a few Brooks and some decent Browns also.  Upon arrival I noticed that things looked kind of like a jungle.  Everything was green and full of life.  It actually looked like summer.

I ended up walking in on the upper part of the stream where the road dead ends.  The picture below is one of the biggest holes on the stream.  It is a bridge from before the road was a dead end.  Beautiful spot to just sit and take it all in. 

Once I got further in, the sun was out in full affect.  My head was getting sweaty from the hat I was wearing, but unfortunately had to leave the hat on due to the fact I was being attacked by the black gnats(flies) and mosquito's.  About 10 minutes in I started wondering if I might have made a mistake.  The creek is tiny and had so many different plants hanging over in it, making it damn near impossible to even get a fly into the water. 

 I did end up catching a brookie out of the Bridge Hole but ended up getting so frustrated from the heat, grass and newly formed lumps on my face and neck from the bug bites.  Up until this point the bugs haven't been to bad around these parts.  It always amazes me how fast things change here in the Driftless Area.  Plants that were a foot high a week ago now seem to be over my head.  Oh well.

After some debate of whether or not to continue hiking for the few fishable holes that were open for casting, I decided to skin out while I still had a little time left.  I got in the Subaru and peeled out, gravel style.  Cussing about how itchy and hot I now had become.  I cruised down the road in search of somewhere else to fish.  There is one hole along the road that is actually the same stream but miles downstream from my original fishing location.  I always pass by it and wonder if there are any trout still this far down on it.  I pulled out my fly rod and waded through the weeds.  I cast from the bottom of the hole up into the rapids. Nothing.  So I fished towards the bottom of the hole and ended up catching about a 12 inch Brown, that shook itself free after a few leaps an wiggles out of the water.  Bummer, I thought to myself.  Well at least I know that trout live this far down, that's great.  So I decided to move towards the side of the hole and kept casting near some rocks where the rapids spilled in and I retrieved my line pulling across the hole on top of the water.  All of the sudden and totally unexpectedly a bite.  Not just any bite,  I set the hook and out leaped a huge brown trout.  A 18"-20" Brown leaped about 2 feet out of the water, for a perfect side view shot.  $h!t where the hell is my net?????  Oh no I left it in the car, not planning on landing a lunker.  I fought the fish as it literally bent my 3 wt. in half.  Then I felt it, the hook slipped.  Wait the trout was still there.. I jumped down into the sandy muck and tried to get the fish closer and up to where its fins wouldn't be able to help it escape.. It turned and went the other way towards the bottom of the hole and totally switched the position of the hook.  Almost like it knew what is was doing :)  Then it happened, my pole suddenly went from bent to flinging straight up in the air.  %$#$%^^%$##@@ AHHHHHHHHHHHHH no, no, no, no...... All that was left was a sandy cloud of water where the Brown took off in such a hurry, along with my hopes of catching the lunker I was in search of....After regathering my composure and washing my mouth out with some soap,  I retreated with tail between legs.. Swearing off trout fishing altogether at this point and trying to convince myself that I don't even like trout fishing.  Not to mention I scored a few more sweet lumps on my neck from the g dang gnats.   Oh man the stream definitely was getting the best of me today....  I will go back to this hole and get that fish.. And when I do I will make sure to catch a photo of the beauty before I release it back. 

I decided that I hadn't had quite enough and stopped to fish a multi species river on my way home.  The Pine River.  It starts out as mainly a trout stream at it's headwaters and then gets warmer and holds just about every fish available in Wisconsin.  I meandered down the river for about 10 minutes without any luck.  After receiving about 20 mosquito bites and a beard full of gnat's I decided that was the last straw.  I purposely got my flies snagged, snapped my leader and B'lined it for the Subaru.  I then headed straight for home and was questioning if I would ever head out trout fishing again.....:)

On the drive home I noticed this Whitetail standing in a pool of this beautiful wetlands area.  After seeing this and cranking up some Slightly Stoopid, I was able to chill out and realize that some days are just better than others.  I could have just been happy with the Brookie and called it a day.  The Brown that got away would be on mind until I woke up this morning.  Next time I will carry my net and I think I might start leaving the barbs on some of my flies.  Trying to land a 20" fish without any barb's can prove to be a real pain in the butt..Especially when your talking about a size 18 hook.  Well I learned my lesson, again :)  I wonder if I would have had my net on me, would I have even caught that big brown.  I can't help but be a firm believer in Murphy's Law.  Mostly because of the experiences that I have had the fortune or misfortune to be part of while out fishing.  Like that Bass that time..if I would have used 8 # test instead of 4 # would I have only caught Blue Gills and not the biggest bass I have ever caught...????? Sometimes I purposely tie my flies on half ass, hoping that I will Murphys Law myself into a huge fish.  And many a time I have caught a nice fish only to end up with a curly Q at the end of my leader.  Fly be gone.  Feet be stompin!! :)  

 UNTIL NEXT TIME.....TIGHT LINES TO ALL...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After all the bumps from bites, I was wishin for an early spring day like the picture below. 

Photo taken by my son Ocean.  Nice Work little bro.

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