Another Central, PA heavy brown

[Heberly]

geebee wrote:
wow. what a fish. i guess he was warming himself up.

did you spot him first ? great spots on him.

Thank geebee! I did not spot him. I was long casting as for about an hour the temp was above freezing, so I could get away with running line through the guides.

 

[JF_]

Great fish Heberly, I'm sure you forgot about the temps after he was hooked.

Was it a hard hit, or did he just take it lightly?

John

 

[Heberly]

JF_ wrote:
Great fish Heberly, I'm sure you forgot about the temps after he was hooked.

Was it a hard hit, or did he just take it lightly?

John

The sun is quite warm this time of the year, it really didn't feel cold unless the wind was blowing. The afternoon yesterday was just wonderful.

I was running a small indicator about 24 inches above a copper john/walt worm..

the indicator went under just like any other small fish, I set the hook, and it began to roll, I was only able to see a flash at that moment, as it initially swam downstream maybe 5 feet into deeper water before that roll...

At the time, I thought I had a 17ish fish, it didn't seem that large.

It went into the deep, and stayed in the deep at that point, which my next assumption was it was a sucker, then when it didn't simply give up, I knew it was a trout.

When it came out of the deep, and I saw it it, it was an amazing feeling!

Being alone, and not having a net of the right size for it, I decided to just let him do his thing without snapping off.

He made maybe 5 hard runs for a log jam below me, which I was able to stop and keep him in clean water.

At one point he got upstream of me, then turned towards me and he swam right in my net, head first. I picked the net up, and only half of him could fit in it, just crazy crazy luck. Right place, right time.

 

[bigslackwater]

The adipose fin on that beast is bigger than most dorsal fins!

 

[djs12354]

Nice looking fish! Bet your heart was pounding!

 

[LeTortAngler2]

Wow, that's a big ol'Brown. Congrats for sure, especially on landing and getting a few snapshots, it can be really tough with big fish

 

[Heberly]

djs12354 wrote:
Nice looking fish! Bet your heart was pounding!

Nailed it. Didn't start pounding until I saw him for the first time! But it was pounding!

 

[Tucker733]

Congrats that's a beautiful fish. Nice job

 

[jifigz]

I'm sure that the fish was laying in the shallows on a sunny day warming up a bit. The fish wouldn't be getting much sun and/or warmth in that 5 foot deep hole. Nice fish btw.

 

[wildtrout2]

Looking at that huge brown again made me think how lucky you were to have a camera on hand. Could you imagine trying to convince folks that you caught one that size, but don't have pics? lol
That's a great example of why I always have a cam while fishing.

 

[Tigereye]

WOW. Beautiful fish. Salute to you good sir. Many more.

 

[SlingerFlyRods]

ehh... its not that big... camera trick

 

[Alnitak]

That's a nice big brown! How big would you estimate?

 

[ThePreacher]

Yowzha....Nice, congratulations! Was that on public water?

 

[pcray1231]

Fantastic fish!

I'm sure Heberly has a better estimate. My off the cuff measurement from the pics comes out mid-20's. That's based on my hand measurement, I don't know how big Heberly's hands are!

 

[Heberly]

pcray1231 wrote:
Fantastic fish!

I'm sure Heberly has a better estimate. My off the cuff measurement from the pics comes out mid-20's. That's based on my hand measurement, I don't know how big Heberly's hands are!

It was public waters my friends.

Met some excellent angers Saturday, and after speaking with them, we all agree, this fish came out of the depths to sun itself on that gorgeous day.

Guessing 24-25. I don't carry a tape, my friends yell at me for it.

 

[SurfCowboyXX]

I was going to say an EASY 24". And I tend to sandbag (especially other people's fish). Could be 26" and I wouldn't be even slightly surprised. Nice catch, man. That's a hot fish. Gives you an idea how hungry they must be when you have a dude who ordinarily wouldn't bat an eye at a size 14 Anything because of the weak return on investment getting whacked on a Copper John (not to denigrate the fly at all--you just have to admit it's a bit unsophisticated to whack a fish like that under ordinary conditions on a fly that small). Nice pull, dude. Just a really sweet fish. Finesse wins in winter.

 

[JMG]

Great job!! What a brute!!
I caught a brown of that nature on a bead head black copper john #14 several years ago. The funny thing, it hit when I least expected too as well. I wasn't even paying attention then WHAM! LOL. Almost dropped my rod in the process too!!