A Personal Best to Start the New Year

Tommy and I were very excited for our first trout fishing adventure of the New Year. With this unusual warm weather of mid-40s for this first week in January, we would be crazy NOT to trout fish. Minnesota has a winter trout season that starts January 1. For those of you that braved the elements on opening day with below freezing temps including 25+ mph winds, my hat goes out to you. When it comes to winter fishing I've learned to be more selective and have found the warmer days are generally the most productive and enjoyable, today being the perfect example.

At the creek, we could tell the outing was going to be a success. My car registered 43 outside and the snow from Sunday was basically gone which made for easy hiking. Right away we both had trout chase and swipe at our #9 Panther Martin spinners. Tommy had gold and I had silver with red and blue rainbow trout markings, different colors to mix it up. However the creek was low and gin clear. Fishing our way upstream, we were amazed to see several wakes of decent sized trout scatter a far distance ahead of us. It would be just a matter of time before we hooked into some trout. Clearly we just needed to work on our approach. The sun was beating down and I was getting hot out. I could not believe less than a half hour into our trip I had to take my fleece jacket off. Was this actually the first week of January?

A long bomb way up the narrow creek, three feet into my retrieve and a hit! “Fish on!” I shouted. “Any size?” said Tommy? “Oh yeah, nice one Tommy” I replied. At first the fish acted like a northern pike. I saw a long slender streak of white belly and the fish proceeded to roll on the spinner. Then closer to me the fish zigzagged to the left and the right ramming itself into the cut bank trying to break free, typical trout behavior. “You got him Marky?” Tommy hollered. “I got him Tommy, no worries” I replied and next thing you know I was trembling with excitement, cautious to play the fish nicely. Head first into the net I gently set on shore to keep from flopping and preventing unnecessary tangle. “Measure than fish Mark” said Tommy. Out with my tape I measured. “Just a touch over 21” Tommy.” I replied with a big smile on my face. I briefly held this long slender lady gazing at her beautiful dark colors for a brief moment before I slipped her back in the creek where she quickly took off downstream.

Now it was Tommy’s turn to catch a nice one. One big 20”+ brown, my outing was already made. We trudged forward casting the narrow creek, taking turns. Any of the more promising pools I let Tommy have first cast. Roughly a football field up from where I caught my trout we came across a promising pool. Looking upstream it is narrow at the top spilling out to create a kidney bean shaped pool bowing to the left before snaking to a shallow right corner. Tommy was on the right side of the crick by the shallow corner and I was on the left side ready to cast to the “funnel” at the top of pool but decoded to let Tommy cast first. On Tommy’s side there was lots of brush to contend with and he lobbed a cast that ended up being short and tight to the right bank, literally only about four feet upstream from where he was standing. We both saw the wake and both of our eyes lit up. “Take it, take it, take it!” I lightly chanted to the fish. And then it happened. The spinner almost at the end of the pool right in front of Tommy’s feet I seee the top half of a gigantic kype come out of the water and chomp down on his spinner like an alligator attacking. “Yeah!!!” I cheered “You got him Tommy!” I added. After the hook set everything seemed to go into slow motion. So much water was splashing everywhere for a moment I had a hard time seeing what was going on from across the way. “Throw me your net!” Tommy prompted, and I quickly unhooked from the back of my vest and tossed across the creek. Honestly I think the big brown did not know what hit him. The fish was literally in 6” or less of shallow sand gravel mix, the fish did not have any time to even take off before it foolishly circled back towards Tommy and went head first into my net as if walking a dog into its kennel. It looked almost too easy. Tommy landed that fish easily under a minute. I don’t even think the fish took out drag. The fish on the bank Tommy was jaw struck, stunned as if he could not believe his own eyes. Tommy measured 26.25” on the nose, a new personal best.

This was a marvelous day that will be etched in our memory forever. Lots of high fives and some beers back at my car. We could not stop talking about Tommy’s big catch. Clearly massive and made my 21” look like a noodle in comparison. The whole time this tank of a fish was ambushed at the tail end of the right side of the pool buried underneath the shallow cut bank, literally only a few feet from where Tommy casted from. To conclude, the fish was released in good shape, he only had to be pumped by the tail once before he shot off like a rocket back downstream. With the photos Tommy already told me he plans to have a replica made. This was clearly a fish of a lifetime, and all the better as a shared experience.