Fish Tales

Fish Tales is a section dedicated to Society members and allows them to share some of the more interesting moments in fishing.

DOUBLE TAKE!

By Dave Collett

I had a memorable experience with a big brown trout fly fishing the Green River. I was working upstream one afternoon casting into likely pools (we call them “bathtubs ”on the Green) and I cast a grasshopper imitation into a pool ahead. The fly disappeared almost immediately and I set the hook.

I could feel it was a big fish and it ran downstream as they often do, so I stumbled along the bank after it. After three or four minutes I was able to see that it was a big brown somewhere around 18 inches long. But a few minutes later I could see that something wasn’t quite right. Instead of one fish, there were two.

Somehow the fly was stuck in the side of a 6-inch rainbow near the tail and the rainbow’s head was inside the mouth of the big brown, which was trying to eat it. The whole time I had been fighting the brown trout over his lunch. When the brown saw my landing net he just let go and swam away. The little rainbow was still alive, so I removed the hook and set him free. I figured he had enough for one day.

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