HOLY SHIT!!!1!11!

Date: May 8, 2007
Location: V
Air temp: low 70s
Water temp: ??? (I really need to buy some new batteries)
Hatches: not much
Fish landed: 1 brown

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

Xan


I decided to take a few days off of work to go fishing. With these couple days, I also scheduled a doc appointment for a routine physical, as I had neglected to do so last year. Since my new HMO is located in Richfield, I decided to go a bit further south after my check up and give the V the old college try.

Quick D and I had scouted the V a few weeks ago. We didn't see a single friggin' fish, let alone trout, after visiting many spots on the stream. It looked good, but not a single rise or silhouette darting by was seen.

There were signs put up by the guvment declaring catch and release, so I figured there had to be something there.

When I got to the river, I went downstream and scoped things out. After fishing here and there, I false-hooked my first MN trout. I had pierced the side of a little brown. Well, I thought, at least I can say I saw a fish in this crap.

What seems to be the major problem with the V, is that while it has the size of a good trout stream, large portions of the bed are sand. Only once in a while will one come across a gravel bed or rocks. And while it is wide enough, it rarely gets deep.

I made my way downstream to the end of the state property, then made my way back along the opposite bank. Through this I had spooked a decent looking fish, and seen a few smaller guys swimming around. Then I passed a bank with a few larger fish. A little further up, I saw roughly three even bigger trout fleeing my shadow.

Taking mental notes of where I saw the fish, I moved further up and fished a bit to wait for them to reset.

After catching roughly zero fucking fish and getting frustrated by snags and tangles, I headed back downstream to try the two spots with fish of girth. While there are few rocks to get snagged on, there are plenty of trees, logs and twigs in the river, most of which I hooked. There is also plenty of vegetation along the banks to get caught up in.

I went to the first spot and started casting. Nothing. Getting even more pissed as the snags mounted, I waded up to the second spot which was about 90 feet away. This area was along the far bank, where the floor dipped down noticeably.

On what I think was my first cast, shit went down. None of this indicator slightly bobbing nonsense. It was apparent roughly half a second after my flies hit the water that I had dug into something huge.

Two violent splashes immediately erupted as I set, and the biggest fish I have ever seen shot out of the bank. I have no idea how long the fight lasted, but was probably a good 3-5 minutes. I had brought my 3wt, and I was basically pulling a rock around the stream.

I struggled up and down the stream, trying to get it to shallower water. I thought my arm was going to fall off, which I haven't felt since Montana last year. I started to wonder if I would ever net him, if I would just be telling a fish story about the one that got away.

Fortunately, he had hit my lead fly, and the fluro 5x held well (my dropper was on 6x mono). After a long battle, the trout gave up, and I was able to get my net around him.

I had found my first Walter.