Gelb

Last Friday, just after sunset, I caught another large wild brown out of one of the streams I've been frequenting this year. The same one that produced Dave, and this 16" brown on a trip I hadn't written about:

Anyway, as the sky darkened, I reached a big deep hole I knew was holding at least one large brown. At the end of a drift I felt a light tap and set the hook. A big, very yellow trout came to the surface and started thrashing. I made quick work of the fight and was soon admiring a very interesting looking wild trout. This fish's spot shapes and arrangements were very unique, and the yellowness was hard to ignore. It was a very yellow trout. Noah came up and was able to snap a few quick shots with my phone (I can't turn on the flash on my current camera). They weren't great, because it was a phone camera... but you get a good sense of the stature of this small stream monster. But not the color. 

Yesterday I revisited this stream with my grandfather. It was a great day, and wonderful to get some rare time on the water with him. We set out in the morning with cloudy skies, mid 60's temperatures, and mist. My confidence was high, especially since that water would be up from the rain we've been getting. We started well up in the watershed and it wasn't... up, that is. For some reason some of this streams drop and rise at very different rates than others, so the top of the system was a little higher than it had been but not at all of-color. It was not good. A couple small fish. We left seeking browner horizons. 

Spot #2 produced some small browns, a bluegill, and two good fish in the 12-14 inch range, as well as one 16-17 inch brown that I lost well into the fight. All on Rich Garfield's Ausable Ugly. 

Spot #3 produced more small browns and one nice brookie, the first I'd caught this far down the  system. 

Then I went to the big hole where I'd caught the crazy yellow fish last Friday. I wasn't exactly looking for that fish, because I knew there were others there. But when he came up to chase a small yellow perch I'd hooked, just like Dave chasing the 10 inch brown, I switched to an articulated streamer and he came up and smoked it first cast. This did give me a chance to get better shots of him. 

The fish was certainly big enough to deserve a name, especially since it is making repeat appearances. I decided to name the fish Gelb, German for yellow, for reasons that should be obvious. 

I don't want to catch him again. But I was glad to get some good photos of Gelb the second time around. There are at least three more different fish 20" or better in this stream though. One of them is a hen of about 26 inches. I would like to catch as many of them as I can. 

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