Ruined Another

[Driftless]

Chris Young is up from Chicago with the Lee Wullf Trout Unlimited Chapter for their Spring get together. I had met Chris a couple years back and given him some tips on where to fish. He much appreciated the tips. I had never actually gone with him before because of my back and knee problems. That changed yesterday.

We met at 9:00am on stream. Chris is typically a fly angler but he does spin fish when his fishing partner is spin angling. He was taught how to cast the spinning rod by Jay Thurston. The underhand pendulum cast was unmistakable.

I was a little worried I would disappoint Chris because he had fished with Thurston. Thurston is even more of a trout nut than I am. The sun was bright in the sky without any clouds. Trout typically shun bright sun light.

We talked as we fished. I watched 90 percent of the time. This is the normal when I fish with someone else. Chris did not come all the way up from Chicago to watch me fish.

I asked Chris about his typical day when he fished. Most times he averaged around a dozen fish in a day and most were in the 9-10 inch range. I smiled inside. I thought this stretch had been good to me the last time I fished it. Even with the bright sun light Chris should do better than a dozen tiny fish sticks.

About 40 yards in I saw a promising bend in the stream with a submerged stump. I coached up Chris and had him cast exactly where I thought a decent trout would be laying and "BANG" he was rewarded with a ferocious hit. It went up on its side and we saw how big it was. Chris got immediately nervous. For an instant it was tangled in a submerged tree limb. I went down to the edge to net it, The trout was having no part of it. It finally tired and came to net. I noticed the trout was barely hooked with the size 9 gold panther martin. As I netted it the spinner came free. Chris was giddy as a school girl. He exclaimed this first trout was his "Personal" best of his life.

.

We continued fishing the entire stretch. At the end Chris' tally was 35 browns and none were under 11 inches. Chris had a dozen long line releases. He also had a huge trout rock him to his toes. "His words." The trout did not stay on. I explained to him that large trout get really tough mouths and it is common to bounce off the big hits. Chris had a couple shake free at shore that were nearly as big as his new personal best.

We talked in the car as we left. He thanked me for the "BEST" small stream outing of his life. We promised each other to do it again soon.

[jmg]

Thank you for sharing a very special day with us.

[Stick500]

You gotta wonder sometimes if people from other countries like Japan or England ever see Len's threads and go "this guy gets to fish public creeks like this in his backyard all the time for free??"

I imagine Len realizes he lives right in the middle of one of the most incredible, easily accessable, trout fisheries in the world. Thanks as always for sharing great pics and stories.