Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Overshooting the goal

This spring I’ve done a bit more trout fishing than I’ve done the past several years. With home responsibilities being as they are I’m trying to home in on some of the more marginal waters we have close to home where most other anglers overlook big resident browns. These are totally different animals from those that run up out of the Great Lakes where they fatten up on abundant forage to spawn each fall.

I’m in commercial banking and one of my clients produces soft plastic lures he has used with great success on big predatory browns. He knows his stuff, having fished every day for many years and learning the best ways to cover water most effectively. When we went out the first time he suggested a fast-action medium light spinning rod with 8 lb test which is quite heavy in my experience. I’ve always fished light- or ultra-light rods with 6 or 4 lb test, respectively. No, he said, if you get into the kind of fish we’re seeking here you’ll want the power of the rig I’ve suggested. I don’t argue with guys like him.

I had told my wife a month or so ago that I’d be really happy with an 18” fish this season, as that’d be my personal best. In Michigan a master angler fish is 24” long.

A buddy and I decided to hit the river I grew up fishing yesterday morning. It’s open catch & release year-round, and the area we decided to hit is pretty ugly from the road, discouraging other anglers. Add to that the fact the water is full of deadfall’s and you’ve got a great formula for big fish and no competition for their attention.

We weren’t in there for very long at all… maybe 100 yds from my car, when I thought I got a snag, but the snag moved. Either way authority. I was on an undercut bank at the edge of a hole probably 6’ deep with a deadfall at the top, a deadfall at the bottom, and a trunk lying parallel to the bank just a few front in front of me a foot or so under the surface.

I’d just replaced my 8lb Trilene and I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t she’d have broken me off. She took drag at least a dozen or so times, my rod doubled over, me palming my spool to try to slow her down, she owned me like her bitch. It was amazing! I can’t count the number of times I was convinced I’d lose her. The last one being when she slid up on the outside of the log that was parallel to the bank, slowly sliding under it and in toward the bank, rubbing my line on the log. At that point I locked down my spool with my palm and pulled her out, got her over the log and into my buddy’s net.

She taped 26.5”, and I was too rushed to get her back into the water to measure her girth which I wish I’d have done. I’ll likely get a replica made; I have applied for my first master angler award with the DNR.

A genuine fish of a lifetime here:

Awesome fish.

Congratulations

Sweet!

That's a beauty Ernie !!

Beautiful fish!

What memories are made of.

One often finds some amazingly large fish is tight waters, but they got that way by being smart. There's a steelhead sized rainbow that hides beneath a weir on one of our local streams. It will come racing from cover to examine a splashy fly presentation but stops just short of inhaling and doesn't fall for a repeat presentation.

I'll be happy if I can just get a take some day.

Thanks guys.

Can you imagine how man brown trout that thick girl has eaten in her life??

It’d be super interesting to know how many times she has been caught.