Releasing Your Gemmies Does Work

[Swattie87]

Had another repeat catch today. I probably have close to ten confirmed of these at these point, and likely more I've never noticed. C&R works, period. Caught the first time on 01/03/16 and caught again today, 10/17/16. A little longer, but skinnier this time, and more colored up due to the time of year. Caught from the same culvert hole. Ignore the method by which it was caught the second time. Ironically, I hooked it in the exact same spot in its mouth...wonder if it remembered me?

Bounced around three small Lebanon area streams today and saw no active spawners...one possible vacant redd in a tailout, for those who are looking for an update on the spawn. Appears to still be pre-spawn. Flows were low-ish, but not all that bad considering. In that general area, fish shouldn't have trouble moving to find suitable habitat and/or partners.

 

[pcray1231]

Stocked. J/k

 

[ryansheehan]

Catch and release???? Like catch it and release it in the cooler?

 

[csoult]

Yes, but you touching it should have killed it.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

csoult wrote:
Yes, but you touching it should have killed it.

Seriously. Didn't you know taking a picture of your catch is just as unethical as putting it into a cooler!?

 

[pcray1231]

You killed it twice!

 

[The_Sasquatch]

LOL!

 

[Swattie87]

This guy was lucky. After touching them and taking their picture, I usually "release" them into 365 degree peanut oil.

 

[salmonoid]

pcray1231 wrote:
You killed it twice!

Does us viewing the photos make us accomplices to murder?

 

[pcray1231]

Does us viewing the photos make us accomplices to murder?

Would that be a "double homicide"?

I've always said that sometimes they don't die immediately, sometimes it takes a while. Judging by the dates here, at least 9 months.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

fish is getting dumber though...beadhead wooly bugger first time and the second "fly" is a white mister twister? Or is that a marabou crappie jig? I know. Fly rods ARE hard to cast.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Uh oh Swattie, your dirty little secret is out of the bag!

 

[Swattie87]

The_Sasquatch wrote:
Uh oh Swattie, your dirty little secret is out of the bag!

It's well known and documented that in addition to a fly snob, I'm a spincaster, bait/lead chucker, and dirty pinner.

 

[steveo27]

Man, that gemmie looks tasty.

 

[sarce]

It's well known and documented that in addition to a fly snob, I'm a spincaster, bait/lead chucker, and dirty pinner.

I heard that dirty pinning works well on Valley, even better than a downstream stonefly. Teach me the ways of the centerpinner please.

Cool fish, btw.

 

[pcray1231]

Teach me the ways of the centerpinner please.

1. Buy centerpin outfit.
2. Rig with a nymph or other offering below a float.
3. Stand way upstream of hole.
4. Put rig in water, let drift down into hole.

 

[Swattie87]

5. Set the hook on that Gemmie like KVD does on a 7lb Largemouth.

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. I pull these off on brookies quite a bit too, only 3-4 times on browns.

Spawn is on hard in this area, confirmed on at least 2 streams so far I have seen. Last stream I was in saw at least 20 pairs of fish. I have a great video to share if I ever get around to uploading it to youtube and linking here, you guys will enjoy.

Almost thought that second picture was a fly that starts with m... that would be worse than a green weenie.

 

[ryansheehan]

The same thing happened to me :-D

 

[Swattie87]

ryan - If you want credit for those two pictures being the same fish, you gotta take pictures of the same side!

BandH - Yeah, most of my repeats are Gemmies too. My best one is a Brown though...it went from about 8" to 14" in a year. Thanks mostly to a primo lie in a culvert hole I think. There was a much bigger Brown in that hole (18" range) at about the same time that I saw once. I'm guessing that bigger fish either died or was creeled and allowed the smaller one to take over the primo lie under the undercut of one of the culvert wings and achieve that rapid growth rate. I think I posted a thread on it...I'll see if I can search it up.

As for the "fly", as was suspected by fox, it's a 1/32 oz twister tail. Fished on a 5 1/2 ft UL spincaster.

Edit:
Growth Rate in Small Stream Brown Trout
^Link to the thread with the Brown. I forgot how funny salmonoid's post #10 was in this one.