The Epical 2025 Fishing Yarns and Photo Thread
Seeing as I was a skier for so many years, I still get really excited when it snows, associate it with a blessing from on high, and now have transferred that excitement to the superstitious belief that when it snows the fish also get excited. It was this confluence of superstitions which got me gussied up to go out on the river today, as it snowed last night, and today, and I was raring to go forth with my truck in 4WD and get my line wet.
The last couple outings have been unimpressive, I landed three whitefish in two trips out, which was disappointing since I hadn't fished in two weeks. However yesterday's one fish performance felt good though, and I felt luck creeping up on me as two eagles sat in a tree above where I was fishing.

Today's outing started slow, and I only had one whitefish to show for the first couple hours, but as I drifted a double beaded Prince/ red worm combo into the top of the confluence, I got a strong take, and was shocked at the big jumping fish it lead to. Holy crap, it was a brown trout! And though this brown was on the slender side, he was a full twenty one inches long. W00t w00t, my biggest brown by a lot!

I continued up stream above the confluence where there is a trough in slower water. I was feeling unusually lucky to have caught al big brown in water that I really don't associate with that species, and have only caught a couple small ones in that area before. I deepened my rig for the trough, and while I was musing aloud that I would be lucky and thankful indeed to catch another trout of any sort, I got another hard take, and a solid set led into a battle with a big strong fish. I figured this one would be a rainbow or cutbow, or a monster whitefish as those are the fish I catch there, but when I had gained some line, I saw that it was a darker fish than I expected, then I saw orange spots on the side and recognized what it was, a bull trout. I held on with my left hand while I fished out my camera, because I well know it's not kosher to pick them up for pictures, and towed it into shallow water, getting a marginal pic of the biggest fish I've ever caught, while he was still in the water. Easily 23", though I didn't measure. Happy New Year to me, the two longest trouts (I know a bull trout is a char) I've ever caught, within the space of ten minutes, Alleluia! Blessed be the God of fly fishing (and all else), and may all of your fishing years be full of such moments.
Last edited by Rasputin; 01-03-2025 at 10:19 PM.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. -אלוהים אדירים
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