Caney Fork Trout Fly Fishing - Caney Fork Trout Guide

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DavyWotton

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Trophy trout
« on: July 06, 2006, 07:54:01 PM »

Hey guys, how do you value a trophy trout.

Is it by weight, length or by the means that you caught it, or maybe the location that you were fishing, such as a way above average fish for that water system.

Davy.

MikeA

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Re: Trophy trout
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2006, 09:20:45 PM »
Bernie Taylor said it best in his book Big Trout. Trophy Trout are measured in pounds not inches.

This is my proudest moment to date. It was about 23 to 24" and was caught in shin deep water in a narrow spring creek that looked to small to have any fish in it. I was using my 1 wt when I saw the fish. I was not targeting big fish with the 1wt but I was also not about to let it swim off without at least trying. I’ve caught bigger trout, but this one sticks with me the most.





There is not much collective security in a flock of sheep on the way to the butcher.

Caneybuff

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Re: Trophy trout
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2006, 09:34:42 PM »
Hmmm, the word trophy seems always something to do with size I reckon, and I've lucked into a few great fish, but a 20  incher on size twenty nymph or midge, esp trophy class if I tied the fly, haha, ..any trout over sixteen brought to hand with six or 7-x tippet, but some of the most exciting fish for me to catch, despite their small size...  deserve to be in the trophy class, for me,  For instance, last summer on the North River above Tellico I caught my first Brook Trout.. what a beautiful and feisty fish that literally behaved like some kind of eager religious assassin when it hit the big caddis.  Was barely ten inches.  Last fish of that day was another brookie, this one almost three inches long, that hit the same big fly.  So, maybe trophy fish are the ones we remember.

Another form of "trophy" would be a nice fish caught by sighting it, making a good well placed and well timed cast,  and getting it to hit my fly.  That's always a trophy of a hoot. Again, a fish to remember.

Most of my days spent fishing, whether with good friends, or alone, when the whole place is just away from the noise of town, when the worries are reduced to no more than making a good cast, when everything is opened up to be incredibly beautiful, sighting a few Eagles or Ospreys or some of the wild creatures along a river, and that sense of a Creator being all over the place and in charge, and especially when there is good laughter ... are "trophy" days.  Days for the record books in my life.  Those are my best trophies.

RonS

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Re: Trophy trout
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2006, 11:33:38 AM »
At this early stage of my fly fishing career, a trophy to me is any that winds up in my hand. It's all relative. I still catch more leaves than fins.  ;D

Caneybuff's reply reminded me of something I had written. This is kind of fits here, and everytime I share it I feel like I am honoring the two guys that got me into fishing.


Successful Fishing


I love to catch fish. Little fish, big fish, bait fish, course fish and sport fish. My favorite is medium sized fish, whatever that might be for the species I’m fishing for that day. Might mean a 16” rainbow trout, a 6-pound largemouth, a 15-pound striper or a pound and a quarter crappie.

Tiny fish are pretty but they just lack the physical strength to send real energy up the line and down to the cork. The kind of real energy that makes my pulse race. Big fish can be awesome but I worry about their survival after a long battle. The few big fish I have had the chance to catch were enjoyable moments, however they don’t send the full of life energy up the line to the cork handle. They are strong, and pull and are heavy but there is just something they lack. Those medium size guys suit me just fine.

They fight well for their size and make the rod come alive in my hands. My hands send an image to my brain with every throb and shake in the rod and in that image I can see the headshake and the dive and the jumps and the rolls. That’s sure enough a successful moment for me.

I love to catch fish, but I really love to go fishing. Don’t get me wrong. I hate to get skunked. I’m not just out there for the birds and the bees and the beavers. I am there to catch fish. I don’t have to take a rod or tie any knots to go out and watch the woods or the desert or the plains. I do that too, but it’s not the same. I really love to go fishing because it takes me back to my earliest memories of my favorite times spent with my grandfather and my father. That makes each trip a success.

Every time I go fishing, without fail, my mind rewinds. It takes me back to when I was 6 years old and the time my dad’s dad came by the house and picked me up to take me to the lake on a Monday. Daddy was to come up and join us Friday night after he got off of work. We camped and fished all week, just Granddaddy and me. That was in 1967, and we were mostly catch and release guys even then. We did keep a mess of crappie to take home to Mama but we didn’t eat no fish.

We ate bean burritos that he fried up in a cast iron skillet on a Coleman stove. We ate bacon and eggs in the dark before dawn out of that same skillet every morning and I got to drink coffee with him. We ate bologna sandwiches and sardines and crackers and we drank Cokes whenever we felt like it and we left the camper before sunup, loaded up into the little 14’ V hull Lone Star boat and headed out.

We got back at sundown and we were tired. I would fish for bluegills in the cove while he made us supper. Then we would fall asleep in the back of his pickup under the camper shell, listening to the coyotes sing.

Friday night came and Daddy showed up about midnight. We left our sleeping bags and the three of us went down the hill and built a fire on the bank. I told Daddy about the week. I can still see the two of them in that firelight, smiling, laughing and teasing me about my fish stories. They called me “Whopper” through the weekend, and it wasn’t because of the size of my fish, but of my fish tales.

That’s not the only time I remember, there are hundreds of little memory movies that come flooding back every trip out. Successful fishing for me is going fishing. Going fishing lifts off the last 40 or so years and it feels good. My grandfather and father are both gone now but I spend time with them every time I go fishing.

I never fathered any children of my own but I hope to share that same kind of success with my stepdaughter’s little boy. I hope he enjoys a day trip I have planned for the two of us this summer to a little creek that we can fish from the bridge. He turns 4 years old in a few weeks. I hope he catches a fish. I really hope it’s a successful trip for him and that he too, someday, can enjoy successful fishing.
Yesterday, I was at the bottom. I was at the bottom of a valley, in the river. Then my eyes hiked up the mountains to the snow capped peaks. I thought, "When I am at this lowest place I can be, standing in a river, everything is looking up."

MikeA

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Re: Trophy trout
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2006, 08:32:21 PM »
Yea and what those guys said.  :)
There is not much collective security in a flock of sheep on the way to the butcher.

oldmanelrod

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Re: Trophy trout
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2019, 02:09:35 PM »
Trophy trout to me it is realtive to where you fish. If it is an above average fish for the body of water you are fishing then it is a trophy.