11/11/12 -- KLG, South Branch, & watersheds along 31/46

[Jigman13]

Had quite the busy day with two friends starting at KLG on Sunday morning. Fished from 630ish until noon and caught ONE fish between the three of us. It was a small, native-looking brown that I got on a pins minnow. Picked up shortly after and headed down stream to fish more of the South Branch where we gotta NADA! Fished the stretch through High Bridge w/o a bump for the three of us. Wasted an hour but hey, that's fishing! After that we grabbed a bite on 31 and headed up 31 towards 46 and stopped at one of the rivers up in that area (unsure which one it was b/c I'm unfamiliar with the area). I walk down a hill and hit a piece of shoreline that looks ideal. Still throwing the pins minnow I hooked into a pretty brown that fought well on the 4 lb test I was using. 2-3 casts later I hook into easily the fattest brookie I've ever caught. It measures 16 inches but looked like it had a baseball for lunch lol. Both fish were photoed, revived and swam away.

We move along up and down the river a bit and my buddies havent even had a tug yet. I ask one of them who was fishing close to me what he was using and he said a pins minnow. I asked which kind. He responded "Trout Magnet Crank". I go "here, put this yozuri on." It was the same pattern/color as the one I was using. He casts and starts ripping the lure through a patch of rapids and i yell "Steve, SLOW IT DOWN!" He goes, "yeah?". I retort, "Slow roll and let the river do the work."

At this point he's on the left of me, upstream. We're both casting almost straight out and letting the lure run down stream in a fanning pattern. I get smashed and dont come tight. Few casts later he moves to my right, downstream. He casts in the vicinity of where I got my hit and WHAMMO! Game on... At first I thought he had a solid fish--sweet. Then the SOB porpoised like a g*ddamned dolphin and I go, "h*ly sh*t dude --that's a huge fish." He was a bit panicky at first and I told him you need to calm down if you want to land this fish. He took his time tiring the fish out, which was solidly hooked with the back treble in the roof of its mouth and the front treble buried in the bottom lip. The fish just slurped the pins minnow down and luckily it stuck where it stuck. After a slow fight of about 10 minutes he finally got the fish spent and I go in for the landing but... WE FORGOT THE NET IN THE TRUCK!! And my GoPro--unreal. Fortunately, the fish was so tired it wasnt much of a task to get a hold of it and got a good grip of her tail and under her head and swept her up into my arms and jumped onto to shore in one fell swoop. I laid her on the leaves and stared in amazement as my buddy Steve stood over my shoulder, trembling and still breathing heavy, let out an exasperating f-YEA! It was a magnificent brown!

I pulled out the tape and measured her at 24 1/4 inches. It was, without a doubt, the biggest trout he's caught in his life and decided that he was taking this fish home with him--a true trophy! Later on we weighed the fish and it tipped the scale at 8.3 lbs. While he was fighting the fish I realized how big it was and one of the first things I asked him was "what lb test line do you have on?" He said 10. After seeing that fish, there's a solid chance that I'll be upgrading from 4 lb test for the rest of the fall. LOL...

After all that I managed to catch another brown in the same area. I finished with 4 of the day including a PB brookie. My buddy Steve, well, you know how he did lol... And nada for my other friend...

Here are some pics. The first few are of Steve and his trophy and then there's a few of the guppies (comparatively speaking) I caught. Catch em' up!

[Lard Almighty]

What a report! Congrats to you and Steve on your PBs!

[shucker]

Wow thats a sweet lookin fish

[Rickhem]

Nice write-up Jigman, and a beautiful fish.
Good job!

[NorthJerzyG]

First big Brown ive seen this fall, from nj anyway. Sick!!

[AndyS]

Congrats on the PB !!! Thats some crazy color on that brown trout !!

[flatcreek]

Wow that's one nice fish. I'm sure you will figure out the name of that stream and not forget, it could only be one of two. Thanks for the pics, remember (no pics it didn't happen).

[FASTEDDIE29]

I know the spot, its not even a stocked stretch. Great catch!!! Congrats on the PB'S. Really good looking fish you have there.

[Jigman13]

Thank for all the nice words. I've relayed the kudos to my friend and I keep urging him to sign up here... I'm sure he's a lurker.

After speaking with a taxidermist down by us in the Woodbridge area, we were reassured of the quality produced in the stretches of river in that area--in miles of both watersheds. The taxidermist had a 9 lb 'bow in his shop from that area that he was working on too. He wouldnt say which river though. He told my friend Steve that he couldnt believe that brown took a 2" inch pins minnow lol... As the adage goes, "elephants in peanuts!". He also gave some insight on some of his honey holes in that area (nothing too specific--just enough to make us want to continue to bring trophies to him lol) and even went on to discuss how a majority of those specimens get into those watersheds and their timeline, growth rates, diet, etc. There was ample reiteration that very large fish wallow in those areas due to conditions, oxygen saturation, and food source. He coined the bigguns' as "sugar fish".

Anyhow, it was a pretty damn cool experience being there to watch my friend land that beautiful fish... It's funny... It was his only fish of the day--he REALLY made it count!

Catch em' up!