[dlw]

While cutthroat fishing on Sunday I hooked into what felt like a huge cutt. It worked its way toward the boat eventually and as I was pulling it up from the depths I looked into the water and saw what was probably an 18" cutt sitting there. To my suprise there was another smaller cuttroat next to it which was actually the one I had on my line :CONFUSED . Now here comes the really wierd part. The large one quickly swam off after it got close to the boat and as the one I had on came to the surface I noticed that it was hooked in the ass, right in front of the anal fin :BLUSH .
Anyone have any idea what happened? The only think I could come up with was that the fish swatted at the fly with it's tail and got hooked. Was the large fish just currious? When I first saw it I thought it was the fish I had on my line, then the other fish bumped into it. When this happened I thought mabey the fly switched fish when they were together, but the first scenerio probably makes more sense.
All day long I would see cutts darting at my fly, and often I wouldn't feel anything. Makes you wonder though. Some days I will get tons of action on the fly, but will only get a couple hookups. They're just playing cutthroat mind games with me.

 

[dlw]

Isn't that the correct term? It's the fin on the underside of the fish before the tial fin. I actually looked in my fish ecology book before posting and it showed it as being the "anal fin."

 

[dlw]

The fish I caught was definently a returning SRC as it was around 12" so it may have been a spawning thing. That other cutt sure made it look small though. The big ones always seem to be the most difficult to catch.
Another thing I have thought of was that the fish have already been caught once or have seen several flies already and were hesitant at biting.