Fish, Cows, Dog Food and Lessons Learned
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I went fishing this weekend up in the north Georgia mountains and had a great time. I was fortunate to gain access on private land with over 2,000 ft of stream-side access to a great river. Now here is the catch – this stream/river is famous for two reasons, one is that it holds big trout and the other is that it is almost 100% privately owned. There is a farmer up there who is selling his land and he let me and a buddy fish for a day. Upstream from his land there are known sites that pellet feed the trout and charge big amounts of money to fish for a day. However, the guy who owns the land I fished told me he does not feed his fish and so I thought the trout where just naturally big . . .
Cows were standing and actively eating
Clear roads, little traffic
Here are shots of very typical north Georgia streams. Heavy cover and canopy makes casting difficult.
We fished all day until dark and had a great time. But that is not the point I wanted to make. I learned some good lessons that I would like to share and generate some discussion.
Lesson 1. Preface: about a year ago I posted a report wherein I talked about a 28″ trout I landed but did not measure. Lando (the alpha hippie) nicely called me on this and mentioned that the fish was indeed no where near 28″ and more like 20″. I am not one to tell fish stories and I truly believed that it was bigger than 24″. So during this trip, we measured all the monsters we caught and I must admit that I was SHOCKED. Some of the Gynormis fish I caught, which were truly fish-of-a-lifetime in my book actually taped out to an honest 21″. For me this was a great lesson. Only by taking the time to actually measure the fish do I have a true understanding of how freakin big a 24″ or greater trout is.
My biggest fish of the day, 21 inches, nice fish and very very fun to land.
Lesson 2. Fishing pictures look better with sunglasses off.
Lesson 3. If you are going to catch and land BIG trout, remember to bring a big net. My buddy had an extra large and long-handled net that allowed us to safely land these big fish. Without such a device, you just beat up the fish.
This is a 20″ trout, notice how much space is left in the net.
Another
Lesson 3. PLEASE know how to revive a fish properly. My partner had never revived big fish and I noticed he was just putting them in the water after removing the hook. I was downstream and saw the fish floating belly up, shock and horror. However, once I revived them properly they swam away safely. Big fish need a little extra care after landing.
Lesson 4. Never believe what you are told. The land owner said he did not feed the trout. Well about 4:30 pm the river just exploded with 20-30″ trout (hundreds) jumping out of the water like there was no tomorrow. It was one of the most awesome sites I had ever seen. I had no idea what was going on and there was no hatch. Then we noticed dog food pellets floating down the river. This was crazy, I thought that I was catching big fish all on my own and that my skills were solely responsible for the angling antics. Turns out, I was just sitting in pellet-fed water with big silly trout.
Lesson 5. It’s still damn fun to catch big trout no matter where you are!
Lesson 6.
Great post Neal! Those are some nice fat fish! Do they bark when you take them out of the water? 😀
It is an amazing thing how a tape measure can put size back into perspective isn’t it. There must be something about adrenaline that makes us see things bigger than they are!
Just curious about one thing. How many times were you caught up in those trees during the day? Looks like it was a very good day to work on your roll cast!
Joel
Roll Cast is what Georgians do best. The first cast I taught my wife and she does it better than anything else.
Joel, yes indeed the roll cast is about the only option on these waters. Just to expand, I used a Z-axis 9′ 6wt on this stream, Ha. My friend brought out the new 7′ 4wt Helios (what a great rod by the way) because of concerns about the canopy. Oh well, that didn’t last long but it did cast well under the trees (still roll cast about 85%).
Kevin, interesting fact – my mother-in-law is listing the property as a real estate agent, that’s how I got to fish. You can buy the land if interested (and have a few $$$).
Great pics, Great to read, but is that a Kangaroo on that hat, are you an Ausie???
You know I am South African, when we play sport, I support South Africa, and anyone playing against the Ausies…Yep, that is a kangaroo. I got that hat in Australia two years ago. It is a waterproof waxed hat and the best fishing hat I own. (IA hat will be excluded from comparison I’m sure).
You’re excused, well done, great story…
Neal one thing missing from your report that I am curious about. What were the fishing eating for you? Do they have a pellet fly? One of the new patterns that Montana Fly Co. has this year is called Dog Puke but it doesn’t look anything like a piece of dog food.
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