Wilson trout! July 22, 2011

[Matt G]

Hit the Wilson with my fly rod today for the first time. I've spent a lot of time around this river but never fished it.

Started out at Elk Creek which was dead as a doornail. The only thing I caught was the attention of a cop checking fishing licenses! Fortunately, I'm legal.

Then I moved down close to the Forestry Center and the action heated up. First couple casts at the bottom of a riffle (above which several kids were swimming) and WHAM - fish on! He fought like a champ and I was surprised to see he was only 8" when I got him in.



Moved a little further down river and hooked up with another 8" prize fighter. These native trout really pack a whallop! I've landed 12" and 13" pellet heads before that didn't have as much spirit as these 8" firecrackers. They'd jump, yank, even strip line - very fun.



I started landing one fish after another, most of them 8" (if I hadn't been moving I'd swear I kept reeling in the same fish! LOL). The smallest was 6", but most were 8" and by the end of the day I had at least a dozen fish. I quit snapping pics after a while. Until...

Mid-afternoon I hooked into the fish of the day. He hit the fly hard but they all had been so I assumed he was another 8"-er. But then he took off like a rocket! No lie, this fish took me 3/4 of the way to the backing! :shock: :dance: :clap: He was stripping line like crazy, and every time I'd get him in close he'd see me and then turn tail and strip half my reel again! We repeated that dance at least 4 times, and I probably moved 30-50 yards downstream while fighting him. The fight lasted more than 10 minutes. I haven't had that much fun fighting a fish since catching a 20 lb. Chinook in the ocean several years ago. When I finally got him in he measured out at 14" - BEAUTIFUL fish.



I really thought about making him dinner, but I decided he deserved to fight again another day, so I let him go. He was totally exhausted. I watched him cruise in the current about 10 feet offshore reviving himself. After almost 15 minutes of waiting for him to take off, I finally moved on. He was still swimming strong.

Fantastic first shot at the river, gorgeous weather, and great fishing!

 

[lilsalmon]

Good job....nice fish and pics....I agree with you, those little guys are true fighters and acrobats

 

[beaverfan]

Nice report and extra kudos for releasing the biggun! The only way I take em home is if they aint gonna make it. Hit even lower and you just might get one even bigger yet! ;0)

 

[Sinkline]

.

 

[Matt G]

Nice report and extra kudos for releasing the biggun! The only way I take em home is if they aint gonna make it. Hit even lower and you just might get one even bigger yet! ;0)

I took your advice and went lower, but didn't see much. Around MP 17 or so. The funniest moment of the day occurred there though. I put a dry fly on just for kicks, set up at the bottom of a riffle, and was stripping line in preparation for my first cast. While stripping the line the fly slapped the water about 5 feet in front of me. By the time it hit the water I had already started pulling it up, but at that very moment a little 4" trout shot up and nibbled it. He was hooked for a split second, just enough time for my upswing to yank him out of the water and about 2 feet into the air! It was over before I realized what had happened. I caught two others on the dry, one about 2" and another about 4". So I went back to wet and moved upriver and landed a couple more 8".

 

[Spydeyrch]

Nice report, nice pics, and above all, nice fish!!:dance::clap::dance::clap:

If I may ask, what flies were you using?:think:

-Spydey

 

[Matt G]

Nice report, nice pics, and above all, nice fish!!:dance::clap::dance::clap:

If I may ask, what flies were you using?:think:

-Spydey

The cutties didn't seem too particular. I fished most of the day with a dual-fly set up. Most of the time I had a Pheasant Tail on the end of the tippet with some kind of Prince thing and (later) a Hare's Ear higher up on a dropper. All bead heads with flash material. You can sorta' tell in the pic above that the big 14" fish hit a Hare's Ear.

I hoped to see what they preferred and then I was going to switch to a single fly, but I had fish hit all three flies pretty evenly. I had one Soft Hackle on me so I put that on at some point, and it got hit too - I actually had a double hook-up at one point, but the fish on the Soft Hackle tore it off and swam away with it (my lame knot!). I think those 4 were all the ones I used, and they all got strikes. Anything caddis-ish was the recommendation I got ahead of time.

Oh, and I briefly used an Elk Hair Caddis for a dry and it got lots of attention from little Cutties (1" - 6"), but I couldn't interest any bigger fish in the dry. Maybe that's a function of where I was at that point more than the fly?

 

[kidcutty]

nice fish!

were you running a weighted/indicator setup with those nymphs?

thanks,

dave