Small Trout and Big Thunderstorms

The clouds were threatening rain to the northeast but the forecast read that it would be clear for the rest of the evening. I tied my rain jacket around my waist just in case. With the cloudy afternoon the fishing should be great. Right off the bat I caught a couple small 6 to 8 inch browns. I headed to the next stretch and again, I catch an 8 inch brown. This is unusual, but it’s good to see these young ones in the river. These will be the ones I’m targeting in the next couple years. Finally I hook a nice 17 or 18 incher. It jumps and the hook comes loose. I fish that same stretch a few more minutes but only end up with another small one.

On my way to the next stretch, I see family of geese. It looks like the same family of geese I saw last week in the section a little further downstream. In the deeper section I catch another small brown but as I reach the top of the pool and cast into the shallow water right before the pool I hook a nice size brown. It shows off its aerobatics and then heads for the deep water. I allow it to fight the current in the deep water. I’m not worried about scaring fish in this hole because I have already fished it. I worked the fish back to the top of the pool and then allowed it to swim back downstream past the pool and into the shallow water where I was able to net it. It was a pretty fish, somewhat slim but a good 18 inches long.

At this time the lightning hits close by and it starts raining. I put my rain coat on intending to continue fishing. As another crack of lightning was heard I reconsidered. No need to be standing in the middle of the river waving a fishing pole during a thunderstorm.