funny story...

I've always believed that if you hook a trout and lose it, you're not going to see that fish rise again in the same night. In my mind, I picture a trout that rose to what it believed was a mayfly, then felt the pain of a hook, to act the same as a kid who just ate his first bite of brocolli.... both would be p'd off with case of lock jaw.

Last weekend I was proven wrong...

I had two of my best clients on the water; a married couple from Ohio. Both of them are avid steelheaders in their home state, but they come to central PA to find the match the hatch style fishing their state lacks. I had them nymphing all day before the evening hatch of sulphurs was to start.

Once we saw a few bugs on the water, I figured the risers would be soon to follow, then fixed up their leaders, and tied a sulphur dun to each. It was just then a few guys decided to crowd the stretch my clients were about to fish. These two guys got close and started bombing wooly buggers over top of the risers successfully putting down just about every riser in sight. Thankfully, they left after not catching anything. I thought to myself those guys may have screwed this stretch, but decided to wait and see if the rise would pick up if we gave the fish some time. Just before dark they started rising again.

A few minutes into it, I heard "hey Dan, there's a huge fish rising up here" usually when I here those words it turns out to be a small fish making a big commotion. This time it turned out to be a big fish making little commotion. What I saw was a big brown's dorsal fin coming out of the water with a tail following way behind. It couldn't have been in a worse spot, the entire way across the river, right next to some rip rap.

It was a textbook emerger rise, so we dropped a sulphur bar emerger behind the dun with a foot of 6x. Within a few casts he hooked it. The fish thrashed around for a split second, then broke the tippet on a tree limb leaving both flies in his mouth. Both of us were speechless. He asked me what the chances are of that fish taking another fly. I told him to forget it, because that fish is laying on the bottom totally piszed off with a pair of flies hanging out of his mouth and eating another one would be the last thing on his mind. We took a break for a minute or two before I started repair his leader.

Before I had a new fly tied on his leader the fish rose again...in the same spot...the same way. I couldn't believe it. I figured it had to be a different fish. I added another emerger, and he started casting again. Within a dozen casts I saw his dun get pulled under. He didn't notice. I yelled "set it". He looked at me for a second, and then I yelled it again. For whatever reason, when he finally did set the hook the fish didn't try to go into the brush, he instead went straight down river. After a few minute fight I netted his fish. It was easily in the low 20 inch range...a fish I figured would be to smart to eat the same fly that hooked him minutes before. After I removed all the flies and they took a good hero shot, we sent the fish on his way no worse off for the experience. I started to think we give the trout too much credit, but that only lasted until 2 days later when I watched a 5" brown closely examine then decline everything I drifted over him.

Any of you guys have a similar experience?

DarDys, you snagger...

Cool story Drake...thanks for postin it.

I once had a large pike break off my buzzbait...I put on another one...and he slammed it again. The first hook was through his jaw, and out his head....and he STILL took the same bait. FEROCIOUS!

I've caught many fish with hooks in them - some even had monofilament coming out of the gut! When they're feeding - they feed!

Just had a similar "stupid fish" story happen to me last night. Throwing 2/0 gurglers on a farm pond for bass (and a few truly ballsy gills), and I had a bass hit about 35 feet out. Hooked and fought the fish for a good minute or so, bringing him to within 15 feet of the shore when, somehow, the hook came loose. I felt the line go slack and saw the shape of the fish turn, then sit still for a bit. From the tension I'd been putting on the line, it brought the gurgler back to the surface. As soon as it broke the surface of the water, the bass shot across and hammered it again. This time I got him.

I guess one way of looking at it is that as many of our baits/lures/flies look like specific foods...if these fish got "smart" and stayed away from them, they'd go hungry. I mean, if you get food poisoning from bad meat do you turn vegeterian? If you're in a fender bender, do you quit driving? Sure you might be more cautious, but you probably are back driving again within a day or two, and you'll be eating meat again as soon as you recover.

Yeah I was fishing middle elk with ripplin lip ..... A hen steelhead inhaled an egg pattern of mine , i slid the fish to the edge of a steep bank as it broke off before I could remove the hook ( no net ) ... About 2 minutes later Ripplin Lip reeled in the same fish with both of our egg patterns in it's lip LOL.....

And then on the clarion a musky inhaled two plastic worms smallmouth fishen ..... One was mine so I asked my bud to cast to the fish he had his bitten through ....... ( it bite threw the line eachtime ) on the third consecutive cast he tried to eat a stick bait and missed the line ..... Fish ate all three offerings within 2 minutes time ...... Never seen such aggression from a fish ........ The 38" plus fish swam away .... and made for one heck of a story ....