Huge Native!

[Swattie87]

Thought I had a monster invasive Brown Trout when I pulled tight to this one and it proceeded to attempt to dig a hole in the stream bottom. Needless to say, I was elated to see it instead was a stud Native!

My apologies to the people checking out the covered bridge over the hole I was fishing for the gourmet meal of profanity I cooked up once I realized what it was.

A sucker holding a sucker always makes for a great pic. Took an egg pattern, for those looking to key in on them.

 

[krayfish2]

Nice fish. Hopefully you didn't get bit when unhooking it.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Best 20 second battle in freshwater

 

[pcray1231]

There's one born every minute...

 

[Mike]

Ralph Abele used to tell me that on the rare occasions when he fished “the sucker was on the wrong end of the line.”

 

[wgmiller]

No doubt you were on stream bottom!

 

[coyoterahn]

Nice……You look sooo thrilled I that pic!

 

[FarmerDave]

I hope you wet your hands before handling it.

 

[HopBack]

Best report I’ve seen in a long time! Congrats on that stud of a native!

 

[jifigz]

I was hoping for a fallfish......

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I was hoping for a fallfish......

I mashed a ton of 12 inch fallfish yesterday. Fought harder and looked better than the color-devoid ugly stockers I got into. These fallfish were sitting fat and eating well.

 

[salmo]

Please send it to Fly Fisherman. It might make the cover.

 

[wildtrout2]

Are you getting a replica, or a skin mount?

 

[Swattie87]

Just glad it wasn’t an invasive Brown. It’s open season on them now. Not sure what the family on the bridge woulda done if it was a Brown and I gutted it on the spot. 🙄

 

[salvelinus]

Kissing trout!

 

[Dave_W]

Takes one to catch one. . .

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Just glad it wasn’t an invasive Brown. It’s open season on them now. Not sure what the family on the bridge woulda done if it was a Brown and I gutted it on the spot. 🙄

I wouldn't mind...

 

[Schaefer406]

Thought I had a monster invasive Brown Trout when I pulled tight to this one and it proceeded to attempt to dig a hole in the stream bottom. Needless to say, I was elated to see it instead was a stud Native!

My apologies to the people checking out the covered bridge over the hole I was fishing for the gourmet meal of profanity I cooked up once I realized what it was.

A sucker holding a sucker always makes for a great pic. Took an egg pattern, for those looking to key in on them.

View attachment 1641229634

I hooked into an absolute monster of a sucker on Penns one time. To this day it was still the hardest fight I have had on my 3wt. The fish took like 5 minutes to get in. Stuck right to the bottom and did not move. I too thought I had a monster brown on.

 

[Fish Sticks]

I hooked into an absolute monster of a sucker on Penns one time. To this day it was still the hardest fight I have had on my 3wt. The fish took like 5 minutes to get in. Stuck right to the bottom and did not move. I too thought I had a monster brown on.

Their in Spring, BIG too, I keep hoping to catch one, i think switching to drop shot with nymph dropper close to shot might be my best shot without sacrificing 200 nymphs to river gods. The ventrally oriented mouth presents an angling challenge but I think hopefully a potentially solve-able one to an extent.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

View attachment 1641229634

"F*** yeah! F***! yeah! F***! yeah! Is what I say when I hook into one of these ABSOLUTE donkeys.

I can still recall the time that I would go to the Tully during the pandemic when I was temporarily laid off from a beat job. I would go down to waterworks and corral the suckers before bombarding them with casts using my 9ft 6wt non-fighting butt SAGE Approach, a rod that is now long gone from my quiver. I remember having to make drag adjustments on my Hatch 4 when I got into bigger ones.

I remember one time when fishing below the 422 bypass I hooked into one that was around or over 2 feet. It just went around a boulder and broke me off.

On the first day of my steelhead trip this year (02 MAR) I caught a sucker close to or maybe that size of the fish in the photo. First sucker I ever took on an egg pattern but I guess suckers are used to eating eggs in the tribs of Erie. I was later told that it's difficult to catch a sucker in a pod of steelhead... Meanwhile my friend upstream (trestle bridge on Elk) bagged his first steelhead, landing it without a net on a rod he bought from a flea market and sporting waders that almost predate me! 1000s of dollars worth of gear cannot contend with simply being at the right place at the right time.