The Moments to Remember

A big bow had just slammed my dolly lama, ran straight up river in heavy riffles and flew perfectly horizontal, flashing the tell tell red striped sides for both Pablo and me.  The day and the run were shaping up to be truly unforgettable.  Pablo was opposite me on the run and hooting and hollering as rainbows and dolly varden nipped, swirled and slammed his mouse pattern.  I could hardly watch my own line for watching the top water action just on the other side of the heavy rolling current.  We could and did and would take dollys and bows all day on dolly lama flies swung through the current, but the mouse, the popping, diving and skittering followed by the periodic gulp or lunge of a big trout was the stuff of dreams and Simms promo video.  Pablo was good enough to leave his action and photo my flying rainbow, and I clipped off the black and red dolly and tied on Mr. Hanky, the mouse of all mice, sporting more teeth marks in his foam back than gold medals on Micheal Phelps neck.  My decision was rewarded with almost immediate attention, but as all fly fisherman know, attention and takes are two different things.  My memory is a little fuzzy on to order of things, I think I took a small rainbow and on a subsequent cast, Mr. Hanky was carving up the big waves in the deep center section of the run, leaving a big wake and attention demanding splashes, when a big dark shape just materialized to his left and deliberately moved behind the unsuspecting mouse.  There was an agonizing pause and then Mr. Hanky just disappeared.  It was probably fortunate that I didn't see the take coming or I'd probably have janked the hank right out of the trout's mouth.

The five weight rod bent hard the current making it difficult to discern how heavy this mouse eater was, but his first dash to the shallower side revealed big shoulders and ramped up my adrenaline, this is a fish you've got to bring to hand!  The Lay of the river played to my favor as I could eventually work him out of the current into shallower, slower water.  Like a lot of big fish, he bull dogged, as if simply perturbed by the inconvenience of a 185 lb man pulling on him.  Eventually fatigued he swam around my legs and I got a full view of this guy- maybe the largest trout I've ever caught.  The mythical 30"?  Probably not, but in the range and sporting all the trappings of a big mature buck dolly- black hooked jaw, gaping mouse eating mouth and wide powerful tail.  Couldn't get any better than this, a world class fish in a world class fishery.  We were the only fisherman to cast to these trout last year and will likely be the only ones this year. The planning, the cost and the physical exhaustion of two brutal portages washed away in the wake of that powerful tail as the fish of the trip quietly glided back to his world, have graced mine for just a few moments that I will never forget.