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stalking a brown

3K views 27 replies 8 participants last post by  Be Jofus G 
#1 ·
#5 ·
Cool how it holds in an open space, no real fears when they're that size. Probably just holding until nocturnal hunting hours. You could always return after dark with a big mouse/streamer pattern. Assuming it's a wild fish, it didn't get that size in that water eating small stuff.

Two ideas if you weren't willing to wait until dark:

I think I remember Lefty Kreh writing about throwing terrestrials into the upstream water to entice some interest and then presenting a fly (he didn't consider it cheating).

Otherwise, that's the kind of fish Galloup writes about that could potentially be stimulated into an instinctual strike by invading his space with a big streamer, splashed in his face and quickly jerked downstream.

What a great sight though, thanks for sharing.
 
#7 ·
I'm not sure I agree with the "didn't get that big eating small stuff" line of thinking. . .
Not that I'm too familiar with fishing for hatchery trout, but the first thing I would've thrown at it would be one of the smallest thing in my boxes, on the lightest tippet. A size 20 flashback or p'tail six inches under a foam pinch-on (cut down to the size of a BB, just enough to suspend the nymph).
In my experience, fish that make themselves that seen are the toughest to catch. Go with 8x, forget about trying to land it, the fun is in the take.
By the way, the video is great. What kind of camera did you use to shoot that? Was it a digital camera or a digital camcorder? I'm wondering because I've got a digital camera, but it doesn't have an operable zoom while it's recording, and I haven't seen a camera that does (last I looked). Also, did you have a polarized lens? All the footage I've shot, I put the lens of my glasses over the camera lens. Cheesy, but it works.
Again, very cool. I could watch a trout being a trout all day long!
 
#10 ·
What kind of camera did you use to shoot that? Was it a digital camera or a digital camcorder? I'm wondering because I've got a digital camera, but it doesn't have an operable zoom while it's recording, and I haven't seen a camera that does (last I looked).
I have a Nikon Coolpix 5600 digital camera that also records digital movies and the zoom in/out work just fine with the movies. Actually, I just checked to make sure and it worked.
 
#8 ·
Yea, thats exactly what i did, threw small stuff, smallest being zebra midge @ 20. Was using size 7x tippet. It is a camcorder. Panasonic PV-GS35. They arent that bad, 30x optical zoom, MiniDV. Got mine for $70 used online. Yea i dont have a polarized lense, i just use the glasses trick.
 
#11 ·
I'm not sure my ideas would work either, given that it's a stocked fish. If it were wild, that stream doesn't look fertile enough to support that size trout on small insects, and I'd assume it was a major predator. The only fish I've seen that large that depend upon small stuff for food are on really fertile spring creeks or tailwaters. Still, I'd keep trying. Got a pellet fly?
 
#12 ·
A pellet fly this late in the game? That fish has been in there for 4 months. Not to mention i have the dvd of The.Underwater.World.of.Trout.VOLUME1 and VOLUME2. And it shows that within minutes of stocked fish getting dumped into streams they start feeding on anything floating by, it showed trout inhaling bark and leaves then ejecting them. its a really good movie should get it.
 
#13 ·
Actually, I've never really seen a pellet fly, I've only joked about their existence (that and the idea of throwing a packet of gravel in the water to stimulate feeding time). Even if they exist, I could never bring myself to tie one on.

I assume you didn't see him feed while holding there?
 
#15 ·
My guess is that it was stocked that large. I don't think it got that large in that creek either. Yeah, by the footage of that particular spot, it doesn't look too fertile. But Penn's limestone and spring creeks are notorious for putting out larger than you would expect fish.
Mute, that fish seems to be breathing quite rapidly. What did you make of this? Was the water warm, or was it swimming hard before you saw it? Do you think maybe it was sick?
I've stumbled upon large fish that were in the most too-obvious of places before, not feeding, not doing anything besides what appears to be sunning themselves(?). In particular, on the Beaverhead. I can't help but think that these fish are sick, maybe dying. I was on the Missouri last year and came up on an extraordinarily large brown in six inches of water, fished for it quite a while at about 30 feet. But it wouldn't take, and so I just began creeping my boat over real slow. I got within 10 feet of it and saw that both eyes were damaged and the fish was blind. Seemed like it was just waiting to die.
Anyways, hope you get another chance at him.
 
#17 ·
woolybugger, yea he was stocked that big, this year the biggest one i seen stocked was 31inches. i fish stony creek usually every day during the start of the season. it gets alot of pressure. So many spin fisherman just ther eto pull out 5 fish every day. Anyway, the odd thing is when the season is pretty much over for this stream, usually in early june. Because of the temps and the shallow water. But anyway, about in june when all the small fish are gone and usually the bigger fish are left. They all behave oddly. All in shallow sunny spots. When i was fishing in early june there were 2 brookies, 3 bows and a brown all in the 20in range basically behaving like his one, except the heavy breathing. But they wouldnt take anything. it just seems when theyre the last ones in the stream and the water is shallow and its hot out they do the opposite they should be doing.

And i forgot to take the temp of the water, but im sure it was high 60's if not middle to high 70's.
 
#18 ·
31 inches, that's unbelievable! You gotta wonder how much it costs a hatchery to raise a fish like that just to put it in a river so some idiot can kill it and eat its nasty meat. Well, I suppose that one would've been a brood stock fish. Still, where I'm from, they only stock a few lakes, and when you catch a brood stock fish, it's fat, not long.
31 inches!!! Holy crap that is HUGE!!! Did it have a cow tag in its ear?
:eek:
 
#20 ·
Hmmm. . .:confused: the pics didn't open in my browser.
I'd love to see them, only because I've caught many trout (by the pound) that were bigger than those, but not that long. Of course, I caught them in Montana's more famous lakes; not sure I've ever fished a hatchery before.
Tournaments? wow. what'll you east coasters think of next?
 
#24 ·
haha yea riseform. Really sucks its not a limestone stream deep into the woods or catch and release only with those fish in there. And wooly bugger, well those fish dont match up with the stats. Those are random tournement pics, but the stats are just some of the big ones pulled out. Its so sad during seeing all these fish with 5 spinners in their tails too
 
#26 ·
WOW totally amazing as I was going to say I have seen fish that big in Stoney Creek & Clark Creek in Dalphin county.... 30 years ago. I remember whole pools of fish just sitting there and impossible to catch.
I grew up in Cumberland County near Silver Springs Run and the Conodoguinet Creek. I never saw a fish sit out like that in any of those Limestoners. If he was in a hatchery to that size he probably has lost some natural instinct.... probably thinks your coming to feed him pellets.
 
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