i couldnt even pinpoint one specific day that was my best day ever. but one of the most memorable days this year was early july. the water had just dropped and my cousin joined me for a trip out too the mountains too fish one of my favorite streams too catch some big cutthroat and bulltrout. this is not a big river maybe the size of a twolane highway on average. we drove out the night before and pulled back the sunroof hours watching shooting stars sharing new fishing stories and talking about some of a favorite days out when we were kids and such. it was the first tiem we had fished together in almost a year. being only two months apart we have shared some very memorable time together on many rivers and lakes as kids learning alot from one another and there was always a friendly competition between the two of us. when one was outfishing the other we would get soo mad. not shoing our frustration but u could jsut tell with the whole bodylanguage and stuff it made for alot of fun. still does today.(like a few weeks after this trip we caught a spinner fall and i wouldnt give my cousin one and he was throwing everything he had at the fish and got 1 for everysiz i had) when one would ask "what are u catching em on" and the reply would always be " I THINK its a*********". but we both always new exactly what we had on.
allnight he kept sayin that all i want is one nice cuttie(because the biggest he caught before that was maybe 13-14")and i kept guarnteeing him atleast a few that would push 18-19". he would reply jokingly
"better be".
we woke up at the crack of dawn and headed down the path towards the river. we fished for a few hours catching a few fish on nymphs and streamers. i had too laugh because he wanted me too take pics of fish in the 16-17"range and i would say nah man its just a dink(just too **** him off). and all he would do is shake his head and let it go. he figured i was lying about there being bigger cutthroat than that in this river. t was around noon i saw a big stonefly fluttering around and told my cousin that we should switch too some large hoppers or stimmulators. he questioned me atfirst . we started too slam many big cuttrthroat in the 18-19" range. my cousin started talking about wanting too find a bulltrout when. a few minuted later a huge fished slammed his stimulator. we thought it was a 20+" cutthroat but it turned out too be a nice22"bultrout. we were both amazed because bulltrout are mostly fish eaters . but i guess they like bugs too. we figured it was a fluke but he got a 24 and a 25" bulltrout later in teh day on teh dry too. so we figured when salmonflies and golden stones are out all fish love them. what fish can pass up a 2-3" bug floating on the water right???

near the end of the day my cousin hooked another nice cuttie around the 18" mark. while he was playing it this HUGE bulltrout started chasing it like a . while my cousin was fighting the fish i was frantically tying on some 20lb test line and a big 10"streamer. we were amazed by the shear size of thisfish. while my cousin was playing his trout i tossed in a streamer and all i saw was a big white mouth. i set the hook and the fish immerdiatly headed straight for a log jam. i fought the beast for a good 10 minutes trying not too let it get into the logs or out of the pool into the fast water. this fish was putting my 6wt rod too the real test. i finally had it close and told my cousin too tail it and his repl was "hell no, if i lose this fish u will never forgive me. i sure no i wouldnt if i were in ur position" so i held the rod back stepped into the water and just reached too the fish and tailed it.we stood in awe not saying anything while my cousin was taking the camer and tape measure out of his vest. we got a few good pictures tape the bulltrout then let it go. the measurements were 31"long and 16" girth. we estimated it too be close too 15lbs. it is the biggest fish ive ever got on a flyrod and ever since then im hardcore addicted too chasing bulltrout whenever i head out.it was one of the best days of my life and the best day my cousin has had flyfishing. we talked about that day for months and each time we hit that same river for the next few months we always talked about finding a bigger one. everytime we talk about my big bull we just call it"the 31"
heres a few pics, great storeis by everone else also. hope this thread keeps going go a while





[This message has been edited by sunskyhooksnwater (edited 13 December 2005).]