FROM CATCH AND RELEASE TO THE PAN - Whip Finish - September 12, 2011

[Kerry Stratton]

Several years ago I was fishing a small mountain lake. The lake is stocked but is managed as a catch and release trophy lake. I don’t really like the term “trophy” but that is how the regulations describe it. On this particular day there was myself and another fisherman on the lake. We both had arrived early and both of us had success.

As the day wore on the fishing began to slow. I was changing flies up every 5 minutes or so. I was also changing up techniques trying to find a combination that worked late in the morning. I finally hit upon a chironomid setup that was getting me into a fish every 10 minutes or so. The other gentleman had come over to see what I was doing right. He changed up to mimic my setup and I gave a couple of the flies I was using.

Soon he was into a nice fish. He had trouble landing the fish because of its size and when he did finally net it he had a twenty or so inch rainbow. Nice fish for this particular piece of water. The fish had taken the fly deep which can happen with chironomids. When the fly was extracted it cause some heavy bleeding and we both could see the fish would not make it. The other fisherman asked what he should do and I told him he had to release the fish. It was illegal to harvest any fish from this lake. We were both saddened as we watched the fish struggle on the surface of the lake knowing it would soon die.

I am not sure which one of us said it first but we decided to at least dispatch the fish quickly to stop its struggle. No sooner had the comments been said an Osprey appeared from out of nowhere and snatched the dying trout from the surface of the lake.

I know that we both felt relief when we saw the Osprey take the fish. Nothing goes to waste in nature.

Nice article. I take the knowledge I have described above and try not to judge those that don’t understand to harshly for I feel most of the fishermen I have met do understand.