... on that gaudy red, white, orange, yellow, and dark brown thing !!!!!!!!!!!!!



Outgoing, that would be. He'll be a lot bigger when he gets back from the Pacific in three years, if he makes it. The incoming guys are generally well over 20" by the time they get back from their 1500 mile roundtrip to the ocean.

I did have a lot of action on the gaudy thing, but mostly smaller fish with only one cutt that went about 13". He slipped away just before I hit the shutter release.

The next spot I fished, nothing on the gaudy thing. Until I hooked a tree that broke it off. Of course, I only had one of them. So I tied on a standard FEB Hopper - and proceeded to hook and then lose a cutt that looked to be 18". It would have been really cool to catch ( and land ) that one on the gaudy thing.

At another spot a while later, still with an FEB Hopper ...



... 19 and 1/2 inches of West Slope cutthroat. That is the biggest West Slope I have landed in four years of fishing my home water. West Slopes don't usually get over 18", and while I've had a good number at or just over 18", I've only had one other that I figured to be 19" and one that I lost that might have gone 20".

Guess I'll be tying up a few more of the gaudy things and going back to where I've hooked few of the big guys in the past week or so. Still have something to prove - or disprove ??

John

P.S. Neil - I was expecting the "color discussion" in the last bi-weekly edition after your heads up a month ago that it was in the works.