My avatar is a Skagit buck from CnR season 2009. It was taped and supposedly 18#. It fought like hell and took line like hell which a big mean fish can do on a river as wide as the Skagit. It sounds stupid if you don’t fly fish but it was a hell of a cast and the line layed out perfect to get the fly to drop a little bit behind a boulder way the hell out there and get in that fish’s face. I remember thinking “that was a perfect cast to get the right drift!” right before he latched on, which never happens to me, usually I get fish on random cast. The fish is also memorable because I was using one of my older Hardy reels and they really are a blast with a fish like that. The fish is also memorable because I don’t really fly fish anymore, I found the average fly fisherman to be insufferable and decided to move on from the scene. I was never an exclusive fly fishing only type and grew up gear fishing a lot and it is that exclusive fly only culture that really grinds my gears. In the end fly fishing is fun, but too limited in a world of diminishing everything.
Nice. Really nice. Don't you love it when you call your shot? It doesn't happen all that much, but when it does...it's like...."yup, I'm good".
The Turkey I got this spring was like that. I told Toof and Dad to shush! We are coming into the spot where they should be, so be quiet and crouch down. I then proceeded to creep 3 paces, pop up over a hill and blast my first turkey right in the face. All over the course of about 2 seconds. Toof asked me if'n I saw that bird before I said that and I hadn't at all. I can't tell you how many times I've done it on fish. Shot callers are ballers.