Different Fish Same place

[wwelz]

I have been spending time on the West branch before I head out west. The great thing about spending time on a particular piece of water is finding the spot within the spot . What I mean is every good piece of water has a sweet-spot where good fish hold. I have repeatedly caught decent fish in a very small section of fast water above one of the famous pools in the West Branch ( about five or six square feet). There is absolutely nothing remarkable about this spot. I have waded through it to examine it closely . I cannot find the reason good fish hold here but they do. This guy is latest denizen of that spot to cross paths with my nymphs.

[AaronJasper]

Alright! That's it... I'm going there in the next couple days. It's torturing me

[frankm205]

Leave some for in a couple of weeks!

[wwelz]

No problem there seems to be enough good ones to go around. I think the warm weather is driving fish into the upper sections of the river.

[biotstone]

That's a very big fish.

How did you get it to pose like that? When I catch fish that big, they don't pose for me like that. They can't wait to get away from me. Somehow, they always get away before I manage to take their picture. Honest.

[wwelz]

I am very careful with fish. I do not use a net. I lead them into shallow water and never lift them out of the water or touch them. I think some people would say a net is safer for the fish. I would be interested in hearing about that. If the fish doesn't cooperate quickly I let it go immediately. I would like to maximize my safe handling of fish for photos so I would welcome feedback from others on the site. I think the best way is to fish with a friend to help take the pictures. I fish by myself all the time. REMEMBER- A big fish is the future of the stream or river. Mishandling one of these guys removes their genes from the environment.

[AaronJasper]

Nice post wwelz...

[Magnet]

Wwelz,
Hope you have the electronic capability and time to share with us some of your experiences when you go out west. It would be very interesting. As far as safely catching and releasing fish I know you are mindful of the time factor. I have been with Aaron times when I have seen him release a larger fish immediately if it seems extra stressed from the fight with no photo. He always nets his fish with a large S2 net. It acts like a holding pen for a few seconds while the fish is calmed enough for the hook removal ,photo and release. I like this process too as it seems to be the quickest most efficient way. The times I have tried to beach an 18 inch trout they seem to at the last second make a wake emitting run for the deep water. I feel this encore battle although short may be the death dance of this trout. The other senareo that is worth avoiding is to have the fish flopping about on the rocks. It seems to me that a good long handled large net with a quick release magnet attached to a D ring on ones back is the most efficient and safest way for catch and realease. By the way I happened to notice a couple of bait fishermen in the catch and release section of the Farmington Saturday. For the life of me I can't understand why the state DEP allows this. They caught between them double diget numbers in about an hour. With the forceps in hand they seemed to do out patient surgery on each one. They did not use any net but dragged numerous 16 inch browns and rainbows up on land. Instead of reviving them which might have been a bother to them they merely dropped them in the water. What a waste. I have talked about this before but t irks the hell outa me.

[AaronJasper]

Yeah the bait in the TMA has to go. At the very least they need to be checking for barbless hooks!

I am going to show you a couple of big ones later

[wwelz]

Thank You Aaron . Magnet- You may be right about the net. I am pretty good at landing fish without a net but it is a source of concern for me .