Thursday 4/16/20:
Decided to do a little bit of first light trout fishing at a New Jersey stream before work on Thursday. I wasn’t going to have a lot of time to fish, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I ended up walking to the spot in the dark and got to the stretch I intended to fish in the grey light just before sunrise. I began working the area over. Nothing much going on for the first few casts, except a follow of two. I worked up and down the same stretch when I suddenly go the jolt of a strike. The initial hit didn’t hook up, but the fish hit again and this time the hooks stuck.
I could tell it was a good fish initially, as it peeled drag all over the river, but I wasn’t sure how big. It never jumped, just boiled on the surface. It was still a little too dark to get a good look at it, but I could tell it was a heavy fish. For the first few minutes of the fight, I was unable to get anywhere close to the fish without it taking off either up or downstream. Once I got the fish under control, it was like walking an eager dog on a leash. I kept chasing it upriver, but it kept bulldogging, just out of reach. At one point, the fish charged me and I got a look at how big it was. I almost attempted to net it, but I’m never a fan of attempting to net a green fish without a clear shot. I held off, and a couple of minutes later slipped the net under a mammoth male wild brown trout. But how big?
After a few quick pictures, I measured the fish, which stretched the tape to 26 inches. Not only my personal best for NJ, but my largest brown outside of the Great Lakes watershed. I got him back in the water quick, and he kicked off strong with a swipe of his giant tail to continue to hold his throne as the king of the river.
Sun 4/12/20:
Ended up staying in the house all day due to an injured knee, but by the late afternoon I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to get out. I hit an easy access trout stream in PA for a short run. Today was quality over quantity. I landed three fish, all between 20 and 21 inches.
