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3. May Trout

One of several large browns, and rainbows, that have come to my net in 2012.
All of the rivers in the Catskills have large trout so naming where this fish was caught is unecessary.

Very nice, good job! Nice to finally get some fish pictures in amongst all the bugs! I thought this was a trout forum after all :P

Haha funny stuff Orn i like to see the trout shots once and a while myself. And Matt, beautiful trout congratulations. Can't beat a day like that one.

Congrats, Matt. Another big Catskill trout.

Wish I could help everyone out with the eye candy, but from where I'm located I'm more into fishing than driving. So I stick close to home where the trout are small.

Good stuff Matt! Looks like you will be in good form by the time you make it west this year. :)

Spence

Hahaha, maybe we should rename this site bugnut.com?

Hey guys - no bugs, no trout...:)

Sounds like a great day, Matt! Hoping for something similar on my home-river tommorrow. Or at least something close to it.
The dry, sunny weather we're having here bring on sparse and fast passing hatches.

Hey Matt,

How close to a bottom release dam was that? What was the exact toxin amount? How much heavy metal build-up was there? :)

By the way nice fish!

Wow, nice job! Congrats on some beautiful fish!

Haha yeah, I get that :) But in about 12 hours I'm off to Asia on a three week graduation trip. After I return I will go straight back to my river where I will spend summer and hopefully I'll be able to practise what I preach and give you some photos of beautiful brown trouts and arctic chars :)

Goldstrmsam wrote;

"How close to a bottom release dam was that? What was the exact toxin amount? How much heavy metal build-up was there? :)"

Well I don't know exactly how much toxins in the water but your not allowed to eat any of these trout. Also the air within 1/4 mile of the river has a high acidic concentration that peels the paint off of the houses. I can't devulge how close I was to the bottom release dam as I can't let my secrets be known to the lurkers on this board.

That's a mighty nice looking brown there, Matt. What fly exactly did he take? I'm still working on catching fish that big...I tend to fish smaller waters close to home with little competition from other fisherman. Saves on gas money too! And a 3-weight makes them all feel bigger.

Jonathon

Jmd123 wrote;

"What fly exactly did he take?"

That was an exceptional day! It was a week ago Thursday. I landed eight browns. One 15", two 16", two 18", one 20", one 21", and one 21.5". I measured the last three but guesstimated the smaller fish.

I caught all but one on a #18 P. adoptiva dun (blue quill) with slate gray CDC wings, gray trailing shuck, stripped peacock body ribbed with Xfine gold wire, and medium dun Hoffman saddle clipped on the bottom.

When I was young I was strictly into numbers. I didn't care how big they were as long as there were lots of them. Even in my late twenties I can remember many days of twenty + trout. As I got older I became less interested in how many fish but more interested in bigger fish. I was very fortunate to be able to spend June - August in Montana for four years. During those four years I was able to indulge in the sheer joy of catching many big fish. Often I would catch at least twenty fish no less than 15" long.

Now I only dry fly fish and then only to rising fish. Not just any fish either. It has to create a riseform befitting that of a large fish and it has to be a bank feeder. Preferably rising no further than 3' from the bank. In the river I prefer to fish I have found that invariably any fish rising on, or near, the bank is going to be at a good fish. I like to sneak on to them either by wading or positioning my Hyde so my cast is no more than 20'. If I'm quiet the fish will continue to rise and often I can actually see the fish as it rises and takes a fly.

Somedays I do extremely well. Other days, like this past Wednesday, I don't do that well at all. I had shots at four fish at least 20" long. One I had to light a set and the hook came out. On another I struck late and tail hooked this huge brown and in a few minutes the hook pulled out. On the other two I was sleeping and even though I saw a take for whatever reason I didn't set and had to ask my partner "did that fish eat my fly"? Duh! LOL.

Matt, thanks for sharing that last bit of information. Here's my log entry for last Tuesday:

" . . .the only fish I found rising after the rain let up was a
big cruiser in the XXXX hole. I stalked it for about fifteen or twenty minutes, correctly determined it to be eating apple caddis cripples or emergers (it totally ignored adults drifting over), greased up an
apple caddis wet fly, and on the second cast, the fish ate. With all the adrenaline built up figuring out the fish and getting close enough for a cast to a fish that was moving around I may have set too soon, or held the line too firmly, but it didn't surge and with two head shakes on the surface the barbless fly (TMC 100 super point) was out."

I've been kicking myself for a couple of days on that hookset, especially because it was a big fish (if the riseform was any indication) and the only one I had a shot at that day. I think a bit more delay and a sweeping hookset downstream might have been what I needed. It makes me feel a little better to know that even you have your misses, since I consider you one of the best fly fishermen I know. I'm teaching a friend to fly fish, and he said the same thing one day when I put a cast in a tree. I assured him that I screw up all the time. But then, there are the good days. We just have to celebrate those and build on them.