Wild Brown trout-fest, and special guests (5/27/17-5/28/17)

[JDTuna]

Friday (5/26/17):

Wanted to squeeze in some evening fishing to kick off the weekend, so I headed straight from work to one of my favorite trout spots. With the usually horrendous Friday traffic, I didn't get to the spot until after 7. The evening fishing was pretty good, and I managed 5 browns to 16" by the time I called it quits. I spotted the big fish of the night sipping bugs on top, and he didn't hesitate to eat a larger lure put right in his face.





Sunday (5/27/17)

I headed out for a few hours of trout fishing, and I decided to hit a different spot that I'd only fished once before. It had produced well the first time, so I was hoping for a repeat.

Since I didn't have that long to fish, I picked a stretch that was productive before and worked it over well.

I started out with a few rock bass and smallies before I had a brown swing and miss at the lure. Not long after, my lure got slammed and the drag screamed on the ultralight. As I got the fish close, I saw the unmistakable pattern of a tiger trout. After I netted the fish, I saw that the fish had a different patter on each side. It had the typical tiger pattern along one side, but the other side was plain with a mix of colors and no spots! The following 3 pictures are the same fish.







I continued fishing and hooked up again very quickly. The fish fought hard, and when it came to the net I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice American shad that had slammed my lure. My first in fact.



After that, I pulled the hook on a small rainbow and a couple of small browns. I began to work my way back, and hooked up to a nice fish. After a great fight, I slipped the net under a thick, beautiful 18" wild brown trout. After the release, I called it a day.