Rich Guys

I love rich guys who live upstream from public water. This particular rich guy bought both sides of the "55" a "known" Brooke trout stream up north. He built out the dam at a pond that showed up on the older USGS maps and stocked it with exotic fish (extra large Browns, Bows and Graylings). The dam was going to be used to power his house, which was more reminiscent of a great camp or the ol' Faithful Inn, than any cabin built to date in this area. Well either the dam was not powerful enough, or it got blown out for some other reason (he did not like the color?). In any case when a dam gets blow out the fish tend to wander and in this case they wandered to public water just down stream.

I found myself in a place where 10" natives are a joy to find and more likely you work your way up stream fishing 6-9" natives that are both colorful and eager but not enough to break even the lightest of tippets. I tied on a #12 simulator vs. the usual #16 humpy for this water and hit the pocket water. You can't imagine the fun hauling out 18-19"+ fish from 2' deep pockets. These were fish you would only occasionally see on the lower and much more famous "4675".

After an almost comical series of hits including the trifecta (one of each - a Brookie, Bow and a Brown), I hit one pocket along a viscous micro chasm and knew that magic lay in there. The trick was to hit the top of the feed just below the cascade w/o falling in or getting knocked over by the force of the water. Well i did both and struck one of the best browns i will ever see. Unfortunately i do not plan ahead normally and in this case there was really no way to plan for this fish, so once hooked i figured to "just real him in". However life seldom works that way and i had not considered the difficulty of playing a fish like this in such small water (he was never meant to be in a little brook). After some careful play the fish "launched" up and over me (i am 6' tall) and down stream to the pool below. Well what ever solid footing i may have had was quickly lost, mostly from shock at the sight of this great brown rocketing over head (i know, i did not think browns jumped either). We both precipitated down a viscous stretch of rocks and landed in the great pool by the road. Once there I swear we just kind of looked at each other in disbelief but genuinely happy to be unhurt let alone alive. I tapedhim out to 22", slipped out the hook and slide him back into the water, knowing that i would never see a fish like this one in such small water again. Good times, good times.