klingy
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Messages
- 591
I’m on a small spring creek this morning. I only have a couple hours to fish, so I thought I’d stick close to home. I have fished this stream too many times to count, and have seen some monsters. I even hooked up with one a couple years ago that would have been my personal best, but it broke me off when it dove into a weedbed. What were the chances that that same fish is in the same spot?
Well I thought I’d start at the hole where I had hook that beast before. A nice hole tucked back under an overhanging tree. A slippery elm held the bank and the current cut under its roots. I decided on a hopper with a short size 16 pt dropper. First cast. The line straightens, and I just feel weight. Then it moves. I keep pressure on and am able to work it toward the back of the pool. Same. damn. fish.
A fish this size has all of the control. It goes upstream, you go upstream. It goes down, you go down. This thing just held the bottom and did not want to budge. I was ok with that, I would just keep nice steady pressure. As I start to feel pretty good about the situation, it runs forward as if this is the first time it realized the gravity of the situation. My hopper hangs up on a bunch of grass, and my line goes limp. The fish hangs in the light for a second, then slides back up into the bank under the tree. It is gone.
A deep breath. That is twice now that he’s beaten me, but I know where he lives, and what he likes to eat
A small consolation was that in the next hole I was able to land his little brother. A great fish in its own right, but compared to my now nemesis, a small fry. I will be back.
Well I thought I’d start at the hole where I had hook that beast before. A nice hole tucked back under an overhanging tree. A slippery elm held the bank and the current cut under its roots. I decided on a hopper with a short size 16 pt dropper. First cast. The line straightens, and I just feel weight. Then it moves. I keep pressure on and am able to work it toward the back of the pool. Same. damn. fish.
A fish this size has all of the control. It goes upstream, you go upstream. It goes down, you go down. This thing just held the bottom and did not want to budge. I was ok with that, I would just keep nice steady pressure. As I start to feel pretty good about the situation, it runs forward as if this is the first time it realized the gravity of the situation. My hopper hangs up on a bunch of grass, and my line goes limp. The fish hangs in the light for a second, then slides back up into the bank under the tree. It is gone.
A deep breath. That is twice now that he’s beaten me, but I know where he lives, and what he likes to eat
A small consolation was that in the next hole I was able to land his little brother. A great fish in its own right, but compared to my now nemesis, a small fry. I will be back.
