14 January 2017
First Entry of the Year
Sorry for the delay, I did go on a short fishing trip once prior to this one, however, the only thing is yielded was seeing my son slip in the water. After seeing he was fine, I snickered somewhat.
This weekend is warm and I couldn’t pass it up. I haven’t really felt like going out, but I somewhat forced myself to go, boy am I glad I did. I tend to like to avoid crowds, so I went to the lower part of the South Holston River armed with eggs and a scud. Instead of walking straight to my honey hole, I decided to try an area I haven’t really fished before.
I saw one rise and thought well, at least we have a trout present. On the second cast I hooked one, it was probably about 13-14″ and after about 25 seconds, he decided to free himself (or herself, I’m not sure). Feeling good about the spot, I continued my casting.
My fly found a rock, so I headed over, reached into the water and rescued my fly from drowning. then I fished from the other side of the run upstream. This is an example of the fishing being better from the other side. I cast upstream, felt tug and set the hook. for a second I thought I was hung up, then it started swimming. My first thought was boy I wished I would have brought my GoPro.
Using 4lb test line I didn’t want to horse it and it was doing pretty much what it wanted. I hadn’t seen it yet then it jumped out of the water. Let me say here that I have never caught a 20″ trought with the fly rod, but if I get this one it, that all will change. I let him take out drag, and just played the big guy until I could get him in the slower current at the bank.
When I got him over I was so excited I’m suprised I did not drop my phone (camera), fall, or something. I have no way of measuring because I have never needed to measure a fish, they are usually too short. So the pics above may not due justice to this fish. My rod handle is 12″ (an MHX fly rod built by TFR Custom Rods) sorry about that shameless plug, however, I made this one for my daughter and got so excited to sue it, I have yet to finish the details, I love this thing. Anyway, I didn’t take the time to lay them out flat next to one another, I didn’t want to harm the fish. But coming home and trying to get a measurement, is was in the neighborhood of 21-24″ (measuring each picture and cross multiplying). Â The long skinny one above was not close to the same size.
At that point I could’ve left and been tickled pink, but I continued fishing. I ended up catching at least 5 more, I didn’t take pics as I was in the river and didn’t have a good way of getting a good picture of them. The two browns above were the biggest with 2-3 more coming in really close in size to the second one. I missed a few but mercy it was a good day.
A day on the river catching fish in solitude is outstanding and a great way to start the year. If I remember correctly, I thought I set a goal last year of catching a 20″ plus trout, this year no goal but I finally got it. I’m hoping that is a sign of things to come, Hope everyone has a great week and God bless.
