This is Why We Do It...

A lot of times other fishermen will look at me like I'm nuts, or have two foreheads or something... Afterall, it's not every day that you see guys slinging 8" flies for trout, but that's what I like to do when I go "hog huntin."

A few of the culprits...


I figured most reading this will understand the obsession, but for those of you who don't I thought I'd introduce to you a couple of photos of reasons why people like me do what we do....

Meet my friend Chuck. I've known Chuck since before he was a figurehead at the Grantree back in the days when you would call the Grantree and no one would tell you he was staying there, but that's a story for another day and another blog, right Chuck? Chuck is a streamer junkie as well, but like most of us enjoys the occasional foray into dry flies for rising fish, hoppers, nymphing when it's slow etc etc. Don't think that just because I have a sickness it's confined to only fishing a 8 or 9 weight, I do own another dozen or two rods and reels. But when chuck goes looking for big fish, he brings the 8 weight and the dredger line and the 6+ inch long flies - he knows what's going on.


So without further ado, meet Chuck and his friend, the 31" 11+ lb Brown that he caught on the Stone a few falls ago.

No official weight was taken but the dimensions and an FWP estimate put it between 12-14lbs and no doubt it's my favorite streamer fishing shot ever. This isn't a fish shocked out of the Big Hole and photographed and glorified all over the fishing publications, this is a trophy, a fish of a lifetime - probably a couple hundred thousand lifetimes for a dry fly purist. And you've gotta love the pose, cig, gardening gloves, and tape at the bottom of the reel seat, truly priceless. Atta boy Chuck.


For a final thought I'll leave you with this... when bait fishermen open the stomachs of all of the big fish over the years and examine the stomach contents there is a common thread, they all have smaller fish in their bellies. So if the 20+ lb Browns out there are eating 6-14 inch fish, aren't you fishing a bit small of a fly when you throw a size 4 bugger?
Ponder that thought and look this over and think if maybe you would be a bit more interested in something that looked a bit more like this.