Denied

[Driftless]

Denied

 

Part of the allure of trout fishing is the blind potential of what lies beneath every cast you make.

About 15 years ago I saw it the first time.  I was fishing with Pat Hogan and Jay Thurston.  I was not close to the refusal but I was apprised of the aftermath.  Jay had a huge hit. The fish freight trained the Mepps See Best and was off nearly as fast as it was on.  All I heard was muttering about the power of the fish and how it possibly could have gotten off so quickly with such a ferocious strike.

The next year I took my friend Bob Skoronski "Green Bay Packer" retired Ice Bowl Era to the same stretch of water.  Before we got close to the cut corner that Jay got abused in, I told Bob to make sure his lure was tied on well and to retie if the knot was in question.  Bob retied just to be cautious.  I had told Bob the story of the freight train from the year before.  I could tell by his facial expression he was a tad bit skeptical of my retelling of the tale from the year before.

We fished up to the corner.  There was a downed tree about 30 yards below the hole where the incident happened the year before.  Bob could not walk by a good hole and cast into the run.  Bob was retrieving the panther when it looked like lightning struck his rod.  It lurched downward and then straighten back to normal and Bob reeled in.

Bob looked at me with his mouth wide open and the first thing out of his mouth was:  "Are there pike in this waterway?  That fish nearly ripped the pole out of my hand."  That fish never showed itself again.

Through the years I had thought about these 2 incidents and the only rational explanation was the trout hit the spinner part way down its jaw not at the corner where the hing is.  Old large trout have jaws nearly made of stone.  The spinners basically bounced off the bullet proof jaws.  A couple inches closer to the hing and there would have been a hook up.
 

Anyone who has fished with me has seen my set up.  A few have poked a little fun at it and called it a broom stick or mop handle because it is such a heavy action rod. I like the casting accuracy it gives me.  It also allows me to even feel if the spinner blade pauses at all spinning.

Yesterday while fishing with Chris I had a similar incident.  It was quite unexpected.  The day was sunny and there was no structure in the run I was casting.  Big trout shun sunlight and usually like to hide in structure.  I was running the shaded bank deep cut when it happened. I guess the cut to be 4-5 feet deep.  My spinner literally felt like it had slammed on its brakes and went in reverse at Mach 10 all in the blink of an eye and then the line went limp.  I yelled big trout to Chris and had him cast right in there.  It did not come back.

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