Good Gives Way to Great!!!

Some days are good and some days are great. Well, as clients are concerned, the past two days were great, but when it comes to the fishing alone, good to great is a great descriptive!!!

Day one started with a gentleman new to the steelhead game. Having fly fished for a while, his interest was peaked by the Steelhead and with a great wife at home and a recent birthday, he found himself celebrating that birthday on the stream with me.

Kenan was like many other first timers...learning the do's and don'ts of this side of fly fishing as we all have.  He lost some, but also won some....when he won, the smiles were worth it all and by the end of the day, he was hooked for life.

Kenan looks into the net at a nice piece of Steelhead Alley chrome!

A fresh fish in hand is worth a thousand words!

Dime bright fish always bring a matching smile...

As good as the fishing was with Kenan the first day, it was only going to get better.  Now, having been an avid bass fisherman in the past and fishing tournaments in Indiana earlier in life, I was always accustomed to watching the weather.  The calm before the storm always seemed to cause the fish to strap on a feed bag and today they were calling for some severe weather.  High winds up to 60 mph along with driving rain was in the forecast.  A strong cold front was colliding with the unseasonably warm weather I had been experiencing the past couple days...and that calm before the storm was now...and the fish were as unsettled as they could be.  It was as if they knew the next rain was about to come setting them free to run the rivers uninhibited.

So the day started as it always does...early.  We got to the river and in the twilight hour, you could hear fish moving.  They were there and letting it be known.  But what would the day hold?

Very soon, Bill had his line in the water for the first time and on the first drift, it was on!  The fish turned and sent his reel into a symphonic praise.  The day couldn't have started any better....this was a good day, but it was about to get better.

Bill holds an early morning fish....just getting started.

We even managed to pull a lake run brown on this day which was the first for me and a client.  I have been looking for them every day, but haven't seen any.  Today that changed.  Although the fish was a little smaller than I would have liked, it was a Brown and I was much obliged to take his picture.

A small 16-17 inch lake run Brown Trout poses and smiles

Bill continued to get fish after fish all day...so the looming question wasn't will we get fish, it was how soon will it be before we get blown off the stream because of the forthcoming weather.  It was late morning when I got a call from Greg and he told me that they were getting inundated with really severe weather and that it would be to me by early to mid afternoon....just like they forecasted it.

Nevertheless, we pressed on to fish after fish....

Bill poses with a nice piece of chrome and my new Steelhead net from Fisknat.

This net is an awesome added piece to my arsenal!!!

Yet another fish falls to the skill of Bill...

Now, you need to understand something.  Coming into this fall season, I didn't want a whole lot!  I wanted decent water levels and some good times with clients.  There was one other thing though that I really wanted and that was a nice Brown Trout.  They are kind of the golden nugget in the midst of a stream full of steel bars.  

Early in the season, people had been seeing a few, and Greg even landed an nice one the other day.  I have to admit that every time someone said that they caught one, I wrestled with fisherman's envy.  All I wanted to call my fall season a success was one nice piece of lake run Brown Trout.

Well, as the good Lord would have it, today my fishing was about to go from good to great!  I looked into a run that had been left alone all day long and saw some fish, so I told Bill to throw to them.  As Bill was fishing, I saw a large fish move and I proclaimed to Bill, "I think that huge fish was a Brown!"  However, in comparison to the small fish we caught earlier, I doubted myself a bit!  Bill went fish on several times in this hole adding to his numbers, and then it happened.  I looked to the back of the whole where there was a bit of a reprieve from the unbelievable amounts of leaves and said, "Bill, there are some good size fish back there, give em a shot."  So, Bill as he did all day, put a cast right where it needed to be.  The drift ensued and was drifting over a slightly different colored fish than the rest...you couldn't see clearly, but you could tell it was a bit different than those around it.  As the drift passed over, the indicator stopped.  When Bill set the hook, Shamu porpoised out like it was show time and my mouth dropped now knowing that my previous suspicions were true.

I now had the biggest Brown Trout on the line that I had personally ever seen.  This my friends was my season making fish!  Yes, I love the Steelhead, but a gold nugget is what I wanted and I had a lot of weight in gold on the end of my clients line.  As he fought the fish I shouted, "Keep him out of the wood," and "Turn him," "Stop him," and anything else I could.  All the while in the back of my mind, I am thinking, "Dear Lord, please don't let this fish come unbuttoned!"

As the good Lord would have it, today was our day and within minutes of hooking this beast and dealing very well with it, I came up with a slob, a toad, a monster....whatever you want to call it kind of BIG, BIG, BROWN TROUT!!!  I was screaming and hollering as was Bill.  It was like we just won the national championship or a superbowl....it was the best kind of experience you can have on the water!

Bill poses with a 27"+ lake run Brown Trout caught on a Robinson's Chicken Hawk.

These will be commercially available soon through the Orvis Company.

What a slab of gold....way to pan that gold Bill!!!

Now that is a kype any person can love....

You can't imagine the true size of this fish.  He was impressively huge and I hope a forecast of what is to come!!!  This new Steelhead net from Fisknat has a hoop on it that is 20 inches wide by 30 inches long.  You can tell that this fish is big....just compare it's length to Bills arm.

This Brown filled out this net as good as any Steelhead this season!

Look at the width of the back on this fish.  His girth had to be in the 18-19 inch range.

We got a short video of this slob of a fish to show him in living color.  The quality isn't all that good, but it serves the purpose!  Check it out.

Bill's big Brown Trout in living color!  Way to go Bill!  You made my day and my season!

And yes, of course I had to get my picture taken with him...can you blame me?

A beautifully colored up buck of impressive size.  This my biggest fish 
to date for the fall season, but there are more to come!

So, did we get blown off the water?  Well, not exactly.  However, we did get blown away by that amazing Brown Trout and as Bill put it, "When you catch a fish like that, you just can't top it....let's call it a day!"  So, we did...we walked back calling it a day and smiling the whole way!

Until next time, may all of you adventures be as good...I mean as great as mine was today!!!

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson

Head Guide

Steelhead Alley Outfitter