One Last Cast - Continued

For the last cast of the day I punched it hard against the wind, directly upstream. I aimed at the clear water within inches of the rock lined shore next to the fast, cloudy water at the head of the pool. I immediately started to strip line but the line stopped, then shot into the fast, deep water. It was as if this fish had this escape route planned for just such an emergency. It then jumped, trying to throw the hook. It jumped again. In the air above the water this fish looked huge. It had to be the biggest fish I had hooked yet on the Weber. My heart was racing.

Where would I land this big fish? I headed down to where the pool shallowed out, but the big brown also started heading downstream, getting ahead of me. I tried to turn its run back upstream and it worked. He headed back into the deep water directly across from me. I reached the shallow water next to the grass lined bank and as I reeled the fish in closer I pulled the net loose from the magnet. As he caught a glimpse of me with the net he took one last run into the deep pool. By now he was getting tired and I was able to lift his head above the water and slide his head into the net. With the tail still hanging out, I lifted the net and luckily the fish slid in.

I carried the net with the fish to the shore and tried to get a picture. It kept trying to jump so I placed the net back into the water to keep the fish wet and let it calm down a bit. This next time I laid it on the shore he let me take a couple of pictures and get its length. He measured 21 and ½ inches. I need to get a scale so the next time I catch a fish like this I can weigh it. He was hooked solidly. I wasn’t able to pull the hook out with my hand so I grabbed my hemostats and pulled the hook out from the side of its mouth. As I gently placed the fish into the calm water, I hoped he would hang out a second so I could get one last picture of it swimming away. As I grabbed the camera from the shore however, he gracefully swam back into the safety of the deep, dark water.