Tiger Trout Extravaganza 2014

Memorial Day Weekend - usually the first weekend every year when outdoors-men and women take up the first camping trip. Despite the fact that hauling a trailer, four-wheelers, and enough food for a month up into the mountains doesn't qualify as camping at all (I call these people 'pretenders' - those who want to live a country life but don't, or don't know how too) this weekend is usually a good one for fishing.

My rant about 'pretending' outdoorsmen aside, this weekend was fabulous for me in terms of fishing. A week ago, I took a trip to a lake and saw it still had some ice on it. I figured Memorial Day Weekend, the ice would be coming off and the fish would be hungry.

I figured right. I spent three days enjoying some of the best fishing of my life.

Saturday 

Saturday was cold and rainy, which was perfect because only the serious fishermen were out.

The first fish of the weekend was hardly a harbinger of what was to come.

One thing needs to be said right here - these fish fought HARD. I have never had consecutive days of fishing where the fish fought as angrily as they did this weekend. When they took the jig, these tigers tried to drown the darn thing! Honestly, I had several fights with fish that took upwards of 5 or so minutes to horse into shore. Seeing as there was a whopping 20 feet of open water, a 5 minute fight felt like an eternity. 

Most of the fish I caught this weekend looked just like this - fat, long, hungry, mean, aggressive, and healthy. These fish wintered over spectacularly well! 

Yay for beautifully patterned fish! 

On Saturday, I ran into a family who was having a hard time catching fish. I ended up bringing them to my side of the lake and helping them out, and they were kind enough to snap a few of these pictures for me. 

Seriously. These fish are so healthy, it's amazing! It's been a very long time since I fished a lake with such an abundance of large, healthy trout. 

This was the catch of the day on Saturday (thanks Clay for taking this picture!). That tiger was about 20 inches long, and tipped the scales at nearly three pounds. He wasn't the biggest fish caught, though! Here's a closer look at that big boy. 

Just a pig of a fish! 

Sunday

I headed back to the lake Sunday with a buddy of mine, hoping for more of the rod-bending aggressive action I'd had on Saturday. Seriously, the fish were SO aggressive and feisty. I can't overstate that enough.

Sunday was a slower day by far, and colder than Saturday. A few decent fish came to hand, though. 

This guy wasn't too long, but he was fat! Talk about girth! Man, these fish are healthy.

Monday

Monday was the best day of this three-day fishing extravaganza. My good fishing buddy rYsentrout and I got up before the sun did and headed up to the lake.

My buddy snapped these next two pics - truly epic shots! 

The morning was chilly, but that didn't stop the fish from coming. They were all generally bigger, and this was one of the smallest fish caught all day. 

Now, all of these following fish put up an amazing, incredible fight. Definitely some of the best fighting fish I've ever caught in my storied fishing career. 

I still can't get over the girth on these things. Every single fish was a pig and fought like a trophy trout! 

One of my buddy's best fish of the day. 

And finally, the biggest fish of the fishing weekend, a roughly 22 inch, 3.5 pound tiger trout! 

That smile on my face barely conveys the emotion I felt at catching such a fish. And the thing was, most of the fish were just a bit smaller than that one! This fishing trip was hands-down one of the best, most amazing trips I've ever had. I certainly got into more fish, and more big fish, than I have in quite some time. 

I'm not sure what this next week will bring, but I doubt it will live up to how epic this weekend was.