The Hunt…

Hunting fish is not for everyone. That sentence should be read a few times before you read anymore. Everyone who knows me, knows I like to hunt brown trout. I’m talking about a fish that you know exists, but never “see”. When you look at social media pics of certain rivers in NC you see lots of BIG BROWN TROUT, but most of those trout are fed dog food for years to be dumped in that famous river to be called trophies. A wild brown trout is a creature that haunts me day in day out. Im talking about a fish that was born, survived predators, drought, redd bashers, pressure, and ate midges for years till he began to eat fish. A true trophy brown trout is a wild fish over 20 inches in most NC Freestone streams. Small streams have there own numbers ,but “hey this is just my opinion.” Hunting fish is a hard grind that will send you home with your head down wanting to quit fishing all together(this is me). Like I said this isn’t for everyone, and by the end of this you will understand why. Sight fishing brown trout is a technical, and very slow game. Bug selection and presentation is the key. My heart skips beats looking at that bruiser that hasn't been hooked in years. These fish are the smartest fish in the watershed. You don’t treat these fish like “dumb trout”. Im not saying they can’t be caught randomly, but yea that’s my point, it just doesn't happen often. It knows when you are around, and can develop lock jaw instantly for the rest of the day or days to come. You can’t move, talk, spit, or blink. I have looked at browns for hours on bottom, and soon as I look up at a noise I heard it’s as if he knew I would look away, POOF it’s gone. They are very picky fish that want a certain bug and certain drift. These big fish are 99% of the time sitting in the weirdest drift in the hole. Im talking weird drifts! Why is the game so hard? Why is it not for everyone? Well these fish won’t eat the perfect drift and fly somedays, sometimes they won’t eat anything at all. This is when true colors will show up on the angler. Let me keep it real here. People snag fish on purpose for a picture. Let me be the first one to say YOU JUST SUCK! You know who you are! There is no reason to snag a fish, and play him till his tail hits the net. A real sportsman will walk away, and or break that fish off instantly the moment they realize its snagged. Fish Karma is a real thing that Iv’e seen with my own eyes. Some fish are smarter than us, and we as anglers need to realize that. Brown trout is what everyone wants, but the work that goes into them is time on the water and studying their habits. Look at the guys fishing the Tennessee Tail waters. Everyone goes to fish those rivers for what’s in them, but only a few guides out of the hundred are “CONSISTENTLY” boating those fish, and I respect and admire the work those guys put in. Big fish game is a disease, and I truly believe it. My wife can tell you first hand if lost one that day by the way I walk in the door. I don’t hunt as much as I use to, but don’t think I don’t think about it everyday. It’s an addiction I always tell my buddies “you don’t want this”. Now, sometimes things can kinda magically happen when you can get in the right place at the right time. I bet reading till now was like “this dude is angry and weird”. That is all true, but I like to “HUNT”. Imagine walking up to the spot and there lies one of those fish you always heard about. Immediately the heart beats double, and breathing almost stops. You're looking at a true, big wild fish inhaling tiny bugs. Yep they eat the midges, sorry to all my streamer junkies, but sometimes they want the BUGS! Your rigging up so slow because one bad movement and its “ADIOS”. The gill plate expanding while it eats is just making the anxiety worse by the second. You see this giant white mouth that could fit lots of stockers in it just glowing on bottom. You make this long cast into the “weird drift” with a technical bug, and the perfect amount of shot. Time is slowing down big time in this moment. The closer my flies get to that fish the more I feel like I’m going to pass out. I’m a little left or right of the fish, and before I think its over here she/he comes. A Big slo-mo eat, and all you hear is fly line ripping off the water. Big slow head shakes as I pull that fish out of the depths that hasn’t seen the surface since he was a dink eating stimulators. Watching a big fish murder a fly will forever be my drug. Not the fight or the photo, but the eat is what makes all the pain go away. Once I began this hunt ,I would have never thought how detailed and obsessed I would be with it. No one should put themselves through this pain and heartache, but sometimes a little change of pace for a more advanced angler can be a good thing. We will see a big fish push in the next weeks, and after that the hunt will begin. I would be happy to guide you in this miserable hunt this Fall so book now!!

Good Friend Landing a Beautiful North Carolina Brown Trout