Gorgeous (and huge!) Wild Cutts and Rainbows

Fishing in the middle of the week hasn't happened for...well, a long time. Since I started a new job, my weekdays are stuffed full of actual work, and I haven't had the opportunity to visit my favorite holes on a Wednesday for a very long time.

That is, until today.

Thanks to a lucky break, I had a few free hours Wednesday afternoon and decided to make a drive through gorgeous country to a few spots that haven't had enough attention from me in recent weeks.

The weather was gorgeous and I was excited! 

After seeing some fabulous cutts from my good friend Justin (his post is here) I got the cutthroat fever and realized it was high time I find some. 

My first stop yielded a very yellow tiger trout, not what I was after, but a pretty fish nonetheless. 

After that fish, I turned my attention to some water I'd heard held some hefty fish. After walking through some outrageously gorgeous country, I arrived at the small stream which wound its way lazily through the pristine landscape. 

A few casts into the action, I was able to bring this nice fish to hand for a few quick photos. Gorgeous coloration on this guy! 

I'd heard big fish swam in this creek, and I assumed this fish was on the bigger end of things. 

I was wrong, but I didn't know it yet. Regardless, this fish was gorgeous! Just amazing coloration on this guy. 

The other best part? He fought like crazy! Each fish I caught on this adventure ripped line off my reel a few times as they made runs either up or down river. Hooking into such aggressive fish on a small creek is one of the best feelings in the world! 

A wild rainbow came next. Didn't expect to catch these, but they were welcome! 

This next fish is the largest cutthroat I've ever caught. Granted, I haven't fished for cutthroat extensively, but he's still a gorgeous, huge fish. 

I threw my gold Blue Fox size 2 spinner up the creek from me and began to reel. As I came into some choppy water, I felt a nice sharp tug. I set the hook, and I felt a fight on the end! I had a fish! 

Then my reel screamed. The fish swam up river against a decently tight drag with ease, and that's when I knew I had a fish on. 

I played the fish for a few minutes, tightening the drag when I could. Finally, he broke the surface. I hollered, amazed at how big the fish was for such a tiny creek! 

Then the fish took off down stream, and I had to follow. I was about 300 yards up from a small bridge, and the cutt on the end of my line was fixing to take me right under the bridge. 

After tripping over bushes and rocks, and sliding in mud for more than 5 minutes, I finally netted this beautiful wild cutthroat. 

Just to give you some scale - my net is 16 inches across. Those extra 4 inches hanging off the end give the fish a length of about 20 inches. 

The girth was incredible! I couldn't believe how fat this fish was! 

My hand is wrapped all the way around the back of the fish, and my fingers still don't come up over his back! This was easily a 3.5 pound fish, and he fought like one too. The bright orange slashes and beautiful purple on his gill plate made the catch even better. 

He swam off after some coaxing, as tired from the fight as I was. Seeing and holding that fish for a few brief moments as I snapped pictures was incredible. 

I finished the day off with another pair of wild rainbows. 

Just amazing. 

After a hard few weeks for me personally, this was a much needed day of rejuvenation. Forgive me if I sound like I'm waxing poetic, but this was an incredible experience. I'm incredibly blessed to live in such a gorgeous place where equally gorgeous trout stuff the water everywhere. Being able to take part in these adventures is the best part of my life, and I enjoy every second I spend getting a line wet. 

This weekend, I'm headed to Boulder Mountain for some brook trout action. Hopefully I'll have an equally epic experience there! 

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.