“Heart raced and sick to my stomach the whole time, especially after the line popped . Have never had that big of a trout on in my entire life. I am still sick about it.”
I fished with one of buddies from the Twin Cities yesterday. The wife vetoed a second
morning so my friend Mark went on his own. I sent him to the “Biggest” trout in the
Driftless Area.
Mark told me me it was bitter sweet…
but
“It was the best feeling he has ever had while trout fishing.”
I had a similar experience just the other day. My wife and I were fishing from our float tubes in a local reservoir. About an hour into it I had a real nice fish on for a short while and I broke him off. It was me not him. He didn’t run but just did the hard shake down deep and I didn’t let him have his way.
I was totally bummed as I felt that was one of the biggest fish of the season for me and I blew it. We kept fishing in the general area, while I kept kicking myself about my dunce move, as we had seen a few nice fish surface.
In a total stroke of luck I got the opportunity at redemption. I landed a 24" 6lb. rainbow. No it didn’t have my lost fly in it’s mouth but it felt the equal to the one I had lost earlier.
For me at least it just doesn’t happen that way. I was very fortunate to get another chance.
Been chasing it a while.
Last year I lost it.
This year Joe “dirt” lost it twice
and know Mark lost it. I believe
each time the fish was on…we were under gunned.
I have gone after it the minimum of 30 times this year.
Will try again for it in a couple weeks.
Trout Ness is the name of another of my
Big Trout quests that I had about 8 years
ago. After i took its photo…The name was retired.
“never use same name twice”
Trout Ness was 27 inches…this one you need to add another 4-6 inches.
Man, I know this feeling. “Bubba” still swims deep in the only good-sized hole below a waterfall on my home stream. I swear that old thing thumbs his nose whenever he sees me. I had him on the line one time for like 2 seconds. What a rush.
I feel your your pain! I’ve had the same experience with a variety of fish. You know, the funny thing is that I remember the lost fish more clearly than many that I caught. They grow in size and perfection even now. You may get Lightning yet! 8T
This happened to me just a few short weeks ago fishing the North Fork of the Shoshone River in Wy. After several hours of slow fishing in which I had caught one 5 in rainbow and approx 20-30 whitefish I was ready to head home to the motel for the night. My dad and uncle were already at the car waiting for me. I had on a size 2 chernoble as my top connected to 15 pound test and a size 8 halfback nymph connected to 9 pound as a dropper. On on of the last casts of the night I let the foam bug swing in the current all the way behind me. Thats when I noticed the wake coming in from the depths. I slammed my dropper and just kinda sat there for several minutes not knowing what was happening. After having landed 30 or so cutthroat and rainbows eariar in the week from the same water i knew i had a monster. Even a 19 inch rainbow i caught earliar in the trip felt like a 5 incher compared to this. It took off downstream. I was hollering at my dad and uncle to help me but I couldnt keep up with it. After I ran 200 yards downstream it had nearly spooled me and it wasn’t stopping. I cranked my drag down as far as it would go and held onto the spool. It broke off. Never saw it but I think it must have been a leftover laker. This is what keeps me coming back.
I was drift fishing on the White river this weekend and saw a monster trout (musta been 20 to 30 lbs) in a deep hole I was crossing. When I lifted my paddle to try to get in a position to cast to him, he saw the movement and shot away like a bolt of lightning. I suspect that he lives nearby or at least cruses this section of the river, so I’ll be back and will be more stealthy next time.
