Well, I headed out with a friend this past Sunday to wet the lines in the Kaydeross. We went up near Rock City and jumped around for a few hours. Well, the stockies were out in full force and we whacked them. Most were the standard 8-10 inchers, but then I hooked up with a little surprise at about 4 PM. I was bottom bouncing (Yikes, I know, not the PURIST method, but I didn't bring my fly rod with me), and had a nice fish flash at the bait and miss it. Another cast, another flash, but this time she got the bait. Re-bait, another cast, stripped me again. Re-bait, another cast, another flash and FISH ON! Finally hooked her! Using my UL with 4lb on there and a #12 hook, I didn't want to horse her, or snap her off. So, she goes upstream, then downstream, then upstream, then tail dances, then downstream, so on and so forth. A couple of minutes later, I finally drag her to shore with the tiny hook barely lodged in the corner of her mouth. Honestly, can't believe she stayed hooked up. Well, she measued at 15.75 inches of chunky brown trout. She appeared to be a native! No clipped fin. Actually, the smaller browns we caught had no clipped fins. The 2 brookies, however, did have clips.
On a side note, when we cleaned the biggest brown, her stomach was totally empty except for the worms she snatched from me early on.
Tight lines, all!
