What was your best fishing day, although most have many narrow it down to one.
Although last year was my first real attempt at salmon fishing, I only got out twice, once at the salmonier river and once(3 days) exploits, main run was over.
Rose 8 to 10 on the salmonier hooked 4 and basically landed 3, well 2 in hand, the third really close, 1 foot away, lost 2. A few rises at the exploits. But the salmonier river wasn’t my best day, as exciting as it was.
My best day ever was near the salmonier on the salmonier line, I was fishing a small stream maybe at its widest points 12 to 14 feet across.
There was this one pool just below where the stream left the pond. It was about 30 feet long and 12 feet wide and about 2 feet deep at its deepest points. I have fished it many times with good success, 8 to 12 nice size 10 to 12 " brookies, but a day in late june or july last year was astonishing.
I would cast my bug to the top of the pool and let it drift the distance of the pool, (usually fish down stream)but on most casts it never even moved 3 or 4 feet when I would get this fantastic little swirl or savage little rise.
I hooked no less that 60 brook trout and landed at least 50, all in the 10 to 12" range in about 15 minutes, maybe longer but every cast was a hit or strike and fish on, It was by far the most exciting fishing day of my life, the sheer number just blew my mind, I actually had a small tremble from the excitement. Never have I caught that many brookies in one pool, never. Best Day ever,
[This message has been edited by Newfoundlander (edited 10 December 2005).]
My best fishing day was going out with my dad shortly after my mom had passed. I knew a day on the water would be good for both of us. I also had my wife and dog in tow…
We fished some small streams that had some very eager fish pouncing on dry flies. The fish weren’t big, but the surroundings more than made up for the rest of it. It was a day I will never forget.
Wow!! sounds great, sorry for your loss, fly fishing is the best theropy I know off.
I was talking about my day for weeks to the people I know, of course when I took a couple of friends there the results were bad, lol, “I was a liar”, , sad part is I had my video camera with me, I should have set it up, would have had the memory for life, but that would have been a distraction and we all know what that is like when the fishing is wicked, .
Best day, one day this past summer fishing a very productive pool that I know to hold at least three species of fish just made for the fly rodder. Brook Trout, Brown Trout and Bass.
I don’t remember what I caught that day.
I had the whole gang with me, my wife, daughter and my son.
My little guy caught a 15" Brook trout, my wife caught a 14" Bass and my daughter out fished us all in # fo fish caught. Couldn’t have been better.
Now if you speak of most productive day for myself. Well that would have to be summer before last at a small river up in Gander Bay. I fished from a canoe with my cousin.
We got to a pool that narrowed down to nothing through the Alder bed. Right where the alders leaned over that narrow spot, there was just enough room for two to cast a fly into the shade. Every cast and I do not exagerate when I say this, every cast had a tout on and it did not let up at all, we spent about a hour and a half there. The numbers, who knows we didn’t even think to keep track.
I was using a knotted leader and on one cast had two Brookies hitting knots on my leader while another was cruching on my fly.
My second most productive day would have to have been right in your back yard. Yeah, a spot on the Rennies right in Saint Johns. -Yaf
[This message has been edited by Yaffle (edited 10 December 2005).]
Yeah, they say for density the Rennies and the waterford have the largest numbers of browns in north america, they are not long rivers but the numbers are crazy. This is the one thing I really love about St. John’s 2 wicked catch and release rivers, one is a 25 minute walk from where I live(rennies) the other is a 35 to 40 minute walk from where I live(waterford.
Sounds like it was a blast Yaf, brookies are always a grand bit of fun when you get the fat little 10 inchers.
There so aggressive.
My finest fishing day was with my son Rob up on our annual trip to the Ausable one early June.
It had poured for almost two days. It was still raining a bit when we got there on a Friday. The water was very high and a bit discolored for the Ausable. By noon, skies were sunny and clear but the water was very high and fast. We drove up Whiteface to the lookout. We drove back to Keene and Hiked back to the waterfall. We hung around the fly shop and picked out a few flies. We drove up to Lake Placid and walked through town picking up a few items. We ate great meals and we watched the water recede. Because it is all Granite rock up there the water rises very fast, but it also goes down quickly. I told Rob we would fish until dark on Sunday, go back to the Hungry Trout where we had been staying, have a nice dinner and drive home late.
The water was back to normal by Sumday afternoon and almost everyone had left and gone home after breakfast because of the earlier high water and poor fishing conditions. We fished right up to dark, taking a couple of breaks for a snack and a bottle of water and to turn over a few rocks and check on the nymph life in the river. It was a beautiful day and we caught some nice fish in the 12 to 17 inch class and lost a few were at least that size.
After a very pleasant dinner in a nearly empty HT restaurant where you look out the wall to wall windows at the lighted river in it’s endless tumbling journey over large boulders said our goodbyes and headed back down Keene Valley to the Northway. Once we were on the Northway Rob dropped the seat way back and closed his eyes. It had been a busy day, a busy weekend. Not another vehicle was on the road that midnight. It was clear and the stars and moon above helped make it a pleasant ride.
I had one of John Gierachs audio books on the tape player and as we listened to it Rob drifted off.
“What did you like best that we did this weekend Rob…?”
A sleepy, honest 16 year old voice answered me.
“Just being there with you Dad.” ------------ I couldn’t reply except I think I mumbled something like, “Yeah, me too.”
He was back in dreamland and I was glad he was because I had tears of joy in my eyes and words would have come hard .
[This message has been edited by mantis (edited 11 December 2005).]
This May , I was at the campsite 3 days earlier than the rest of our crowd . I just started C&R this year and one of the hardest things I ever had to do was release a 6lb rainbow before the folks showed up . I have freezer in the trailer so I could have kept it to show the guys . The lake doesn’t or isn’t supposed to have anything bigger than 4lb fish . When the rest of the people got there (30-35 of them) They all poo-pooed me when I told them I released a 6 pound fish and that I lost another just as big right at the boat . It bummed me out that no-one accepted my word . We all fished friday , Saturday , Sunday and went home on Monday at noon . I was tops in the numbers game with the most fish caught and released . Plus tops in the size game with a 4lb rainbow caught on Saturday that I kept for a friend . All the guys were teasing me about my 4 pounder that I thought was a 6 pounder and was really a three . God answers the prayers of fools because at 11:30am on the way in to pack up I caught a 6 1/2 pound rainbow right in front of the camp . I have caught 60lb Salmon and 200lb halibut but nothing compared to the feeling of satisfaction that 6 1/2# Bow gave me .
My most memorable day was the first day of deer season 1995,Had nothing to do with the incredible amount of fish caught by my bro in-law and I, But rather what species we were catching.
We were at the Fiber Dam on the Susquhanna River in Shamokin Dam PA, and in the eddy below the dam whatever we tossed in no matter how funky and wayouthere the pattern,It was attcked at the same depth every time,By a feisty and willing Walleye!!..I’d estimate well over 100 fish each,Other ummm can you term ppl as fisherman who are not useing Fly gear ? lol
Just kidding I’m sure they think odd of us as well!. Just were not catching, even with ppl sliding in closer and closer to us…even that did not deminish the fun!
None of the fish were all that large maybe few in the 18-19 inch range but all very healthy and beautiful fish just the same. It was a really nice way to start what became an annual trip…not the same place every year but the same day of each year…which for me to give up the first day of buck season…well…I have not done so since we hav’nt been bro in-laws.
[This message has been edited by billknepp (edited 10 December 2005).]
My best day was about 25 years ago in Yellowstone National Park. The previous evening I was talking to a fellow who was staying at the same motel we were and he said that he had had good luck near Buffalo Ford, on the opposite side of the river from where most people fished. He told us to go upstream a bit to a place where it was easy to cross. Any way, we did what he said, and in the space of four hours we caught over a dozen beautiful cutthroats from 16 to 22 inches. What a blast. Though we were clearly visible to the throngs of people across the river, not one joined us. In talking to people later, we were told that no one was doing well on the populated side. In the time we were in the area, we fished the same spot twice more with similar results, and still had zero company on “our side” of the river. On our last day in West Yellowstone, we passed on our “secret” to some new folks we met. I hope their luck was as good as ours.
Bob
There is a fine line between fly fishing, and standing in the water waving a stick.
Man, those are all great stories, I think sharing the stories of our fishing experience is great, especially if it’s the kind of days you know your gonna remember for a life time. I just really wanted to share mine, I know this question was asked a million times before, but I never asked, besides it would be rude for me to “blah blah blah blah blah” about my day without asking others about their day, .
Here is a couple of photos taken sept 5th this year, the second to last day of the season, ended the 7th. This is the area where I hooked all those fish just not the exact location, the stream is around the corner, behind me,in the photo of me casting. Anyway I’m the fella with the SICO hat on, holding the 2 fish for the camera on the right. The other fella is one of my best fishing buddies, his name is Tommy, when we go fishing it’s an all day affair, it’s worst than a crack addiction for us I think.
It’s just about all we do and talk about.
Mine was just weeks ago…Nov 14 to be exact. I had my brand new Sage VT2 6wt & Mike Murgida & I had decided to just take a “road trip” to a couple flyshops as the weather report was lousy. We ended up at Chagrin River Gillies in Gates Mill, OH with much better weather than predicted & had about 1/2 hour or so daylight left, so down to the river we went. We decided not to take the time to put waders on, picked up 4 streamers at Gillies & off we went. Third cast EVER with the new Sage got me a 6-7 pound steelhead (MY first). What a thrill of getting that 1st steelie & what a “baptism” for my Sage!..Funny I should post this today, on the morning when my 1st Grandson, Connor will be baptised in just a few hours.
Mike
Thanks Gnu Bee. That was over 12 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. He has only missed one June trip since then because of work in the big city. He was married in September and they will be here for Christmas along with my two daughters…I am sure we will recall past trips and plan new ones in front of the fireplace,…Bob
What a great question, and though I’ve had many I would have to recall that the last Thursday in August 1995 in Yellowstone. My friend Steve and I fished puddle cast waters upstream from Mommouth Hot Springs that morning testing both skill and patience , producing 14-18" cutbows on attractors like Royalwulffs, then caught the miday hatch about a half a mile downstream and released at least 15 browns from gray drakes, then after our usual PB&J lunch I released a grand slam on the same river south of Mamouth, the Gardener. That evening we fished the LaMar and released no less than 12 cuts taken on 14-18 Gray Drakes. It also took 5 Chateau Fuente maduro cigars to pull this off and lots of H2O. This was my greatest day of angling. May all of your casts produce a fruitful release. Phil Eddy
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).]
, sad part is I had my video camera with me, I should have set it up, would have had the memory for life, but that would have been a distraction and we all know what that is like when the fishing is wicked, 
![http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c196/IslandBrookTrout/Mecasting.jpg[/url:6a8cc]](http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c196/IslandBrookTrout/Mecasting.jpg%5B/url:6a8cc%5D){kind=link}
![http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c196/IslandBrookTrout/MikeandThomas.jpg[/url:6a8cc]](http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c196/IslandBrookTrout/MikeandThomas.jpg%5B/url:6a8cc%5D){kind=link}