TROUT: John Gierach Big Fat Trout Every fisherman wants to catch some big trout, if only to achieve a kind of balance. I mean, there are big ones and there are little ones and most of us have caught more than our share of the latter. Of course, "big trout" is a relative term. When most fishermen use it they are probably thinking of something in the 20-inch or two- to three-pound class, and a few headhunters reserve the term for kype-jawed wallhangers.
All I can say is, the more forgiving you are about size, the happier you'll be. It seems to me there are two ways to get big trout. One is to spend thousands of dollars to fly into some remote wilderness camp and, once there, do what the guide tells you to do. The other is to fish for big trout close to home. It's an article of faith among anglers that there's always a trout in the water you're fishing that's bigger than the biggest one you have caught so far. As articles of faith go, that's truer than most. Reading the Water: I guess the best way to catch big trout is to fish for big trout, and that takes a degree of dedication. My old friend, Koke Winter, is famous for dredging two-inch-long weighted stonefly nymphs while everyone else is casting pretty little dry flies. He rarely catches as many fish as the rest of us, but some of the ones he does catch are real pigs.
Koke also knows where to find the bigger trout because he reads water well. All things being equal, a big trout wants cover, shade or low light, good food availability, and he doesn't want to work too hard, so he'll want a fast current carrying food next to a slower current that he can rest in. The classic spot is a deep plunge pool in the shade of a cliff or a stand of trees, but many good spots aren't nearly that obvious. Remember that it all works in three dimensions: Bankside currents are usually slower than those out in the middle of a stream, and the current is slower along the bottom than at the surface. Remember also that cover can be almost anything: a fallen tree, a logjam, deep water, deep shade, cloudy skies or broken water. One of the biggest rainbows I ever caught was lying behind a small rock in 18 inches of fast water under a bright afternoon sun. Even a big trout isn't that big when compared to the topography of a stream. As a friend once said, "A big trout can be in any spot where you could hide a football." Hard Spots: One way to find larger trout is to look for the most difficult places to fish, something like a deep, shady slot overhung with alders way over on the far side of a ripping fast current. Lots of fishermen pass up spots that are too hard to get to or where the cast is too difficult; consequently, that water is lightly fished and is more likely to hold a nice trout. This is where the good caster outfishes the poor one, and I've learned that one way to become a good caster is to suck it up and try the hard spots. I figure, if I screw it up I'm no worse off than if I didn't try, and in the long run I think I've actually learned a few things. Sometimes casting to a hard spot involves some adventurous wading, and "adventurous" is as relative a term as "big trout." My friend, Ed Engle, is a big, strong guy with lots of experience. I'm not as big as he is, I'm older, and I have a bum knee. The point is, what Engle might consider adventurous would be suicide for me. I'm smart enough to know that and secure enough not to feel as if I have anything to prove.
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