Same Trout. Same Fly. 1Hour 19 Min Apart – Pocono Class A Brown

[dryflyguy]

I think this probably happens more often than we know.
Because - unless the fish has some unusual marking to identify with - they usually look alike anyway IMO

I'm pretty sure I once caught the same fish 3x in one day at a certain place on spring creek. It had a slash/wound that was pretty odd. And I caught it in the morning, afternoon, and evening in the exact same spot.
One very hungry trout!

 

[salmonoid]

This happens all the time - they are fish, and they need to eat to stay alive, so it isn't too surprising that they forget the sting of the hook after a few tens of minutes. I have numerous (probably dozens) of cases where I've caught the same fish multiple times over the course of days or months or even years, and in some cases, the fish was caught by a fellow PAFFer. So for all the times that I've been able to ID a fish again, there are probably many more where I didn't, either because I just missed the fact that they were the same fish, or a PAFFer didn't post the fish. Not downplaying the OP accomplishment - I think it is neat to recognize a repeat catch and is a testament to the benefit of C&R, and also some evidence that photographing a fish doesn't kill it ;-)

It's much easier to correlate the same fish if there is something unique; for instance, tigers are pretty easy to compare, because they are relatively scarce (i.e. small sample size). Other variables are if a fish is a home body and you happen to catch it at the same spot a couple of times. If it is memorable the first time, and you catch a similar fish there a second time, then I'm more likely to compare the fish and find they were a match. Or if there is a unique spot pattern, or marking, or wound, those tend to register. The nondescript "normal" trout are the ones that I'm likely to not register as being caught more than once. Or, if enough time goes by, a two-year old fish that survives to be a four-year old fish might be different enough in body shape to not register. Also, the probability of a fish surviving for four years is low, so I first have to catch it as a two-year old, then it has to survive another two years, then I have to catch it as a four-year old, and I have to make the correlation between the two fish, which all sums up to being a low-percentage game.. I also think this is less likely to happen when the fish density in a stream is high - you just have a much higher sample size to catch from (e.g. Spring Creek). When you are fishing a small stream, and you have a sample size of say two fish in a pool (one being a pool boss), you have a much higher probability of catching the pool boss the first time around, which will leave an impression, and when you fish the pool again, you have an equal chance of catching that fish, and when you do, you'll remember it.

 

[Millsertime]

Interesting that it appears the brown took the streamer head first the initial catch and tail first the second time.

 

[lestrout]

To clarify, the threepeat I done did was all in the same 45 min session. I have to review my tapes, but I recall catching only a couple of others in between. The Hendrickson spinner fall can be verry productive; that particular one certainly was. The third take and fight was like that of a punch-drunk boxer. Furthermore, all three takes were exactly the same fly. I'm a believer in that specific pattern (wouldja believe?).

Since I often ffish the same umpteen spots repeatedly during the season, recatching the same trouts over the course of several days or months is no big trick, especially with different flies. What is more challenging is to first hook one, have it break me off, have it get back to rising and then recatch it to retrieve my broken off fly before it gets rid of it.

 

[Chaz]

I once caught a brown twice within minutes at the Little Lehigh. Possibly less than a minute, because it was on consecutive casts. During a sulphur hatch just before dark.

 

[AFISHN]

This happened to me 2 weeks a go on Penns Creek.
Had a nice fish break off under a sunken tree limb...the next day fished the same spot and caught the fish with my fly and 2 inches of leader still firmly stuck in it's jaw

 

[wbranch]

Very neat considering you were still using the same cone head woolly bugger. Nice looking wild fish. Catching it twice within an hour and a half only attests to your superb skills as a fly fisher. Good job.

A number of years ago, one week apart, a buddy of mine caught a 22" -23" brown trout on a western tail water and the following week I caught the very same fish. The spotting patterns of brown trout are quite easy to identify and compare. I'd post the pictures but my buddy is camera shy. In other words he doesn't want his mug posted holding any big trout.

 

[Oregon_Owl]

Caught the same brown trout (stocker) on the Perkiomen four months after I first caught him in May about 3/4 of a mile further upstream.

 

[phiendWMD]

I've never done it in the same day, at least that I'm aware of. I caught a brookie yesterday that I caught last week though. It still had the same hook/piece line hanging out of it's mouth it had the first time I caught it.
If nothing else, at least I know I'm practicing good C&R techniques.

 

[pete41]

caught my second biggest brown on consecutive mornings at the same place on the Missouri river-still haven't decided if that counts as one or two eight pounders.

 

[lestrout]

Yo phi - re "I caught a brookie yesterday that I caught last week though. It still had the same hook/piece line hanging out of it's mouth it had the first time I caught it.
If nothing else, at least I know I'm practicing good C&R techniques."

Another episode involved a brookie too. I was sitting on a midstream rock on the Brodheads one sunny day and idly dangled a yellow bodied Adams over another rock. Despite the soft stick I was using (Orvis Flea - a real noodle even in those days), the 13" jumped out of nowhere and broke off the fly with all the 7X.

I fixed my leader and thinking Isoperlas (always a good searching fly in the Poconos, Catskills, Smokies, Rockies and Cali) tied on a Yellow Sally. I repeated the dappling trick and, bam! But this time I was ready and, rather than striking, dropped the rod tip as the trout splashed back into the water. As I was unhooking the brookie, I saw my 7X coming out of his throat. No sign of the Adams - he had completely swallowed it. Best I could do was clip off as much of the 7X as I could reach.

 

[RyanR]

Pretty cool Lestrout and a dandy of a wild brown to boot.

I've had one particularly memorable moment like that happen to me. It was a number of years ago over in NJ on the Big Flatbrook. I had a feisty stocked brown of about 13" take my Trico offering, almost with a vengeance. The fish was pretty distinctive looking with a healing scar on its side that looked like a close call with a heron. I couldn't find my forceps and the trico was lodge back in the bottom of it's mouth on what I call the tongue (that little nobule or protrusion you see in trout's mouth.) So I just clipped it off and released the fish unharmed. I caught more fish after that and less than an hour later I caught another similar sized brown that again took my offering, this time a SJ Worm, with the same aggressiveness. I got the fish to hand and saw the scar and then looked inside the mouth. Yup, there was my Trico and this time the darned fish had also taken my SJ Worm in a spot where I couldn't easily remove it without forceps (still missing.) So I clipped that fly off too and the fish eagerly swam away unharmed with $4 worth of my flies, as I just shook my head and smiled.

 

[1hook]

Cool stuff

 

[KGStine]

Same Dumb Trout, Same Fly, Same Dumb Fisherman, 20 Minutes Apart

I caught a 16 inch rainbow on the Tully today. While measuring him, he jumped and broke my tippet and swam away with my fly in his mouth. About 20 minutes later, I caught the same fish on the same fly. This time I reached down to unhook him and retrieve both flies, he jumped and broke my tippet again, and swam away with both flies.
I'm blaming my dumbness on the recent thread about not using a net to protect fish! I'll probably use my net more in the future.