The One That Got Away: The Sequel

Note: If you haven't read the previous post yet, Beaverhead River: The One That Got Away, read it first. This is part 2.

Nick and Alex drove out to Salt Lake from Cincinnati 3 weeks later. Naturally I took them back to the Beaverhead. This time the water was lower and clear. I used a stomach pump on a couple of smaller trout I caught to see what they had been eating. Guess what? Yep, still worms, along with some small black mayfly nymphs and crane fly larvae. So, in accordance with the “match the hatch” theory, I tied on a San Juan Worm again.

I pulled the drift boat over at my favorite stretch again. Near the end of the run, in the middle of the river where the water was deep just starting to get shallower, I hooked a nice fish that immediately started taking out line. I wasn’t having any luck bringing it toward me or to my side of the river so I made my way toward it and waded across the river to try and land it on the far shore. There was a pretty spring entering the river that would be a perfect spot to land a trout.

Lo and behold, it was my old friend from three weeks before, the rainbow with the deformed mouth. He sure looked pretty against the moss and water cress from the natural spring. He measured in at 19 and ¾ inches. What a prize. I was very gentle and careful to give him a good release in some calm quiet water. He slowly swam off and I said goodbye to a favorite fish.