The First Day of Spring: My Biggest Rainbow

I got up this morning knowing full well that it would be a chilly day, despite the fact that much of winter has been warmer than it is now.  Yes, it's the first day of spring and a Nor' Easter threatens. I knew full well that I would be dealing with ice in the guides for the first couple of hours. But I was going fishing today. I had no choice. I lost an amazing fish yesterday and I was going to do my best to find that monster again today, if not that one than a different big rainbow. I woke the pool and the pocket water above it that is holding these big bows all day. Resting it for half an hour then fishing it for 15 minutes.  The first run through was with a two fly rig, a hot spot PT and a worm. I caught one average rainbow and saw the big boy. It did not eat anything subsurface while I watched, but rose for some skittering caddis. I went and screwed around with an Ausable Ugly for a while and caught one brown. When I returned I tied on one of my special dry fly patterns. It is a secret, though very simple fly. I caught another average rainbow. I nymphed through the pocket water with a Hair of the Dog Nymph before going back through the pool with a few different dries and nymphs.

That round was fishless. A seagull came by and caught a brook trout in the riffle above my. I went down to another pool and fooled around with dry flies for a while. When I came back three big fish were rising vigorously for caddis. I made a few presentations and I may have gotten an eat, but this is long casting and I could barely see the fly. I went back to the Ausable Ugly and decided to sneak up on the pod of fish from behind a big rock. I was able to get there without spooking them. There were a few big rainbows there, but I couldn't see the monster. I sat and watched for 45 minutes. That may seem like a lot of time but sometimes it is thoroughly worth while. While I sat there and observed I saw a great deal and learned these fish well. These fish would take nymphs periodically. They sat on the soft side of a seam, dodging into the current three feet sometimes to take drifting naturals. One in particular, the biggest, would sometimes go to the inside seem after taking a nymph. Then it would come drifting slowly back across to the main seem. Every now and then a caddis pupa would shoot up and one of the fish would rocket out after it, exploding at the surface and spooking it's buddies.
Once I was sufficiently confident I made my move. I tied on the Ugly and put it on the outside seem. The biggest one, the one I was targeting, saw it and went three feet to grab it. I didn't see the eat, I just set the hook shortly after the fish reached the spot where my fly was. It was on. The fish came around the rock I was on, going steadily and powerfully. This was nothing like the fish yesterday. It was not as strong, not nearly as fast. It fought hard but more like a big brown than a rainbow, dogging me near the bottom. I didn't really realize what I had until I landed it. It was my first rainbow over twenty inches! To be exact twenty and a quarter. What does this leave me with? I really want to catch that monster. And I want to go fish for big wild rainbows somewhere....