Alex had been fishing all day for not much, looked like I rocked up just as the bite was picking up.
I hadn't caught a wild rainbow before due to not having really targeted trout with much fervour.
Tied on a DR Minnow in a natural looking colour.
We started walking up a stream and dropped a couple of fish each. As we approached a slightly deeper hole, with overhanging trees on the right, Alex was pointing out to me that trout like to hang on to the edges of the current and just wait for food to fly by them.
Sure enough, he cast to the right of the current and bang he was on! A nice little rainbow was in hand.
Going by the same logic , I cast a little ahead and to the right , on the outside of the same current.
three cranks of the reel and bang. I had a solid bump.
We both remarked that it felt like a solid tap.
I casted again, back into the same section , about a metre further this time. I hardly had began to wind in when the line went tight and a proper size rainbow was airborne. He didn't muck around either, turned tail and ran straight down the current, had the little luvias singing a merry tune. Was touch and go for a bit, I knew I had struck hard enough to have the hooks in proper but always nervous when there is so much slack line involved. Thank fully the fish stayed on.
For a brief moment there, we were worried that he would run further down and have to take hot pursuit, thankfully i turned the fish and brought it back into a pocket of deeper slower water at my feet, about 20 feet from where we hooked him.
he dug down deep and refused to put his head up, but I knew it was a matter of attrition now.
Some steady pressure and up he came, and Alex had him in the net.
Elation followed suit. went 50cm, 3lb on the brag mat.
A quick photograph and released back to munch on his smaller brethren.
Alex got it all on video, looking forward to seeing the footage.
I will never forget the details of this capture though, was one for the ages.
- My first ever wild rainbow
