Today marked the end of another week for anglers at Mission Lodge and a day one lucky guy will never forget. We sight casted at large trout all day today hooking and landing fish at 23", 25", 27" and losing a few battles to larger fish that one can only estimate the size of. There was 1 fish we had spotted and casted at more than once through the course of the day that you just knew was the one but could not get it to take an egg or flesh imitation. For those of you who do not know, all these trout in AK from 20 inches up to 29" are great fish but the mark to reach is 30". This fish was it, the third time we came across this beast he was finally positioned ahead of a pool in the mix of the spawning sockeye and away from the brush where we could make a "good drift". I spotted a large Arctic Char positioned just ahead of the massive trout feeding on eggs as well and informed Everet that the first drift he made his bead would no doubt be attacked by the Char before the trout could even make a move so he needed to try to pull the char out of line with the trout to keep from spooking it. As expected the char charged the bead and Everet did as instructed by dragging the fish to the boat quickly, next cast he made a bit too far upstream and with that long drift another char, only this time he would get too aggressive and break off. After tying a new tippet and bead rig I instructed him to make his cast a bit downstream of the last to avoid picking up another char on a long drift. A well placed cast and a perfect mend started a great drift, I kept my eye on the trout as Everet made small stack mends to keep his drag free drift then I see the fish dart slightly to the side and a flash of white as he opened his mouth to inhale the bead, SET, SET, SET, he ate it!! This did not register right away as Everet could not see the fish eat the bead and his strike indicator had not even twitched yet but with the excitement in my voice he somehow mustered up a great hookset and the fish blasted out of the water showing us how big he really was. After running into the backing and taking us 75 yards down river we put a beautiful buck Rainbow in the net, took our photos, measured his length and girth before releasing him to hopefully catch another day.
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| 27" Rainbow |
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| Gorgeous Bristol Bay, Alaska Rainbow. |
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| "Mr. Big" 30" long 15" girth!! |
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Releasing a big trout.
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