What was your best fish of 2009?

[The Fisherman]

OK, the year isn't over yet, but we're in the home stretch. So, tell us about your best fish of the year. "Best" can be whatever you want it to be: a lovely brookie, your first on a fly you tied, a PB, a fish that took you an hour to fool, a fish you caught in an unlikely spot...it's up to you. Post a pic if you have one. And if you can't decide on one, give us your top two or three. Most of all, have fun.

Who's going first? :-)

[Tidal]

Opening day trout season, I took my two boys to at Chatfield Hollow late in the day. We’re walking around to find a place to fish amongst the two million others trying the same. We settle in amongst the twenty or so hammering the small feeder brook as it enters the pond. Trout are rising everywhere and nobody is catching. I suggest to my boy that he tie on the fly he made at the HFFA show, his first tie – a massive olive woolly bugger. He was fishing spinning gear so I put a shot a few inches above the fly so he could get it out there. The fly hits the water and bang! This happened a couple more times before everything shut down. He got it! He also got his first fly rod this summer so next year he’ll do the deed complete. But hey, a trout on your first tie at 8 yrs old – easily my best fish of the year.

[bassrag]

27 inch- 6 plus pound salmon from the Naugy

[IanCT]

34" fat striper in Chatham, 1 am all alone. The fish took a black eel pattern, about 7" long. I was drifting the fly, right as it started to swing, I got a tap so I strip set and there was nothing there. I twitched it a moment later and felt the whack, and the line was ripped from my hand as the fish ran. After a stubborn standoff, I brought the fish to hand, sadly it had inhaled the fly and was wounded, and went to the table. It is my personal best on the fly rod.
http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/503/medium/IMG00039.jpg
My goal for 2010 is to break my PB on a fly I tied.

[Jon]

There have been some good fish this year, but three stand out for different reasons.

The first was a 31" striper, which I took inside a RI breechway in full flood. The beast tested every sinew as it used the heavy current. I remember the raw power of the fish just moving away from me as my rod bent double and looked for every bit like it would break me! All the sweeter because it was the very spot where a year earlier an old hand had nonchalantly told me to "cast there". [My smile was later said to resemble a "possum eating a sweet potato"!]

The second and arguably better experience was when I caught "The Fisherman's Bass" in a RI salt pond late at night. Nothing much was doing, but we both spotted the lone linesider cruising the surface. Steve walked down the flow, and as my cast swung round to the shallow bar I felt the awesome thump of the fish. It tore off towards the horizon and I contrived to make a complete arse of getting the bass to the reel; the last loop of line snagging around the rod butt. The fish pulled yet further and I'll never forget the impossible strain as my rod and line had no more to give. Someone was watching, because the bass turned back, circled me, and came to hand, all 26" of silvery loveliness.

Oh, I have to include one more: the night, with Andrew, when Ed Simpson's dry muddler shrimp finally cracked the grass-shrimp-conundrum of spring '09, as a tubby 24"er took the dry and put up a great scrap in the skinny water. I guess that's it: it was the context of these particular captures that stands out more than the fish themselves. You just can't pay for that!

Ed Simpson's fly makes the difference...
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c85/Kirkaig/Picture013.jpg

Happy holidays to everyone here.

Jon

[Andrew]

I didn't have a particularly great year of fishing, in that I didn't get any large fish and I didn't get a whole lot of fish, at least compared to the last couple of years. I didn't fish nearly as much this year, particularly at peak times.

So, I don't have any particularly memorable individual fish. But, I did have some memorable fishing occasions. In no particular order:

1) I started learning how to consistently catch carp on the fly rod. A few of these were pretty large carp (10-12 lbs? 15?), at least for such small water. But what was most satisfying was simply figuring out what it took to get them eat. Two years ago, I didn't I could do it. One year ago I got one carp. This year, I got a lot, often 3 or 4 in a given trip.

2) Spent a really nice evening casting largemouth bass bugs into tight cover with a friend, while we slowly worked the shoreline from my canoe. The water was glass calm and the fish were spirited.

3) Also figured out how to catch big sunfish and bluegills from said pond, after getting just little ones in the previous years.

4) Had a great night of fishing on a friend's boat. The water was like glass - rare for this spot - the sky was clear, we saw an experimental NASA rocket launch in the sky (although at the time we assumed the Martians had finally come for us), and we caught a bunch of nice stripers. And we laughed all night long.

5) Got into more stripers off the beach one night than a guy has a right to wish for. Many came at the end of long casts, in calm water, near the surface - setting the hook only to see a fish bust the surface way off is my personal favorate way to catch stripers.

These are the ones that top the list, although there were others as well. With the exception of the bluegill fishing and some of the carp outings, all of these also involved good company (and, incidentally, all members of this site); this may be one reason why they were memorable.

[DA]

It was on the Housatonic. Most of the rises were beyond the usual casting distance as the water was too deep to wade out to where those trout were holding. I wasn't having much action from trout rising closer to me, so I laid out a cast to the limit of my casting range with a double haul and got a take at the limit of the drift before drag set in. It was a 20" brown that took a downwing caddis imitation.

[dudley]

I'd have to say it's the big smallmouth that I got in a local pond, just 1/4 mile down the street from the house.

When we moved here 20 years ago, even though this small reservoir was posted, the pond was quietly fished.
The largemouth fishing was outstanding. Monstrous fish (I recently saw a picture of one that could have been the state record !) and lots of them too. :)
As you could imagine, the word soon got out and some chucklehead cut in a boat launch. The big largemouth and 2 foot pickerel were all culled out and pan fish became dominate. :mad:

Fast forward to about 4-5 years ago.
The town bought the reservoir from the water company and closed down the boat launch.
While the same launch area is still open to car-toppers, there's only parking for 2 cars and it's a bit of a portage down to the water.
That's cut way down on the pressure and fishing has begun to improve.
While the action isn't close to what it was years ago, it's at least begun to be worth fishing there again.

This season I got 2 nice smallies there. My first ever smallmouth from that pond.
Hopefully it's a real nice indication of what's instore for the future

[Catch 22]

This one:
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc221/8013rbs/Brown1Edit2.jpg

It's the heaviest brown I've caught. I've gotten a couple longer, but not as hefty. It was all the more satisfying, because I caught it on a bamboo rod and a click and pawl reel. Sometimes we tend to forget that people managed to catch fish before the advent of graphite rods and hi tech disc drag reels.

Jeff

[The Fisherman]

These are all great! Let's keep them coming. :-)

[westbranchangler]

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q5/flyfishingaaron/Holy****Batman006.jpg
Here is my best CT trout. 28" holdover from the Farmington on a woven nymph.

I'll change the name on that file tomorrow. Here is a 25 incher from the Missouri for now;)
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q5/flyfishingaaron/IMG_1098.jpg

[BRK TRT]

This is one of my special trout of this past year.

A Salter brook trout taken in tide water at Red Brook in September.




http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p235/brookie47/DSCN6358-1.jpg





- Brk Trt

[flygirl]

This Housatonic Rainbow has to be my favorite of the year..The Trout were rising to BWOs in fast water & as soon as I got the right drift......:)


http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/508/medium/20091107_194.JPG

[Farmy Joe]

http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/503/bone1.jpg

[TROUTI]

Fishing on July 11, 2009 with River1, numerous rainbows to hand. Photos in the gallery.

[leadwingcoachman]

salt
a 35 inch striper I caught in a RI pond late one night in June...

stream
and an 18 inch brown I caught in the Farmington early one morning in November...

[pork]

Four stand out as most memorable for '09...one caught, one that got away, one day of total madness, and one moment of sheer luck. (it's hard to pick one this season!)

1. 10lb hookbill salmon on the Miramichi. It was the only fish caught from that pool in almost three weeks.

2. Farmington, not too far below Hogback Dam...very large brown initially ignored my #6 Stimulator, then changed his mind, turned 180º and attacked it heading downstream. His momentum got the best of me...took me a few feet from being into my backing on his first looong run. I lost him after his second run/head thrashing.

3. Farmington, in between TMAs...Stumbled into the single greatest hatch(es) I have ever fished. Lots of March Browns, Grey Foxes, sulfurs and caddis on the water. The fish took a lot of different patterns, but really hammered a #12 catskill March Brown. It was non-stop surface action for nearly 3 hours, pool all to myself for 2.5 of those hours. For about an hour or more, every single fish I cast a #12 Catskill March Brown to took the fly. They even took that fly long after the hatch ended, when there were tons of other/different bugs on the water. It wasn't the most fish I have ever caught in a day, but it was probably the most fun I have ever had fishing.

4. Housy, at the campground...sulfurs hatching...I targeted one rising brown, but couldn't get him to take. I got a voicemail message. I usually never check it on/in the water, but I did this time for some reason. I flipped the #16 parachute sulfur upstream to keep it from getting waterlogged. Wouldn't you know it, the brown took it while I was on the phone. Somehow I managed to set the hook one handed, quickly ditch the phone in my waders and land the fish. Ironically, it was the most solid hookset I had all day. There was no way that fish was coming loose!

Sorry for the length! It's hard to pick just one, and there are a couple others I left out (first time fishing the Hex, and what a night!!). I got off to a slow start but, overall, it was a very good season for me.

[The Fisherman]

This is a tough one for me.

The first striper of the year on the lower Hous deserves mention as it signals that the bass store will now be open for many months.

Like Jon, I spent several evenings (and even an afternoon so I could see how the current was affecting my drift) trying to figure out the @#$% grass shrimp hatch in a brackish estuary. When I finally connected with a striper, it felt great.

Catching trout at the Salmon on Cameron and Gordon (my two youngest boys' names) wet flies was special. In fact, catching trout on a fly that's nothing but thread and a single turn of partridge was kind of cool too.

But if I gotta choose three, here we go.

http://www.stripersonline.com/fish_photos/data/500/Steve_steel2_09.jpg

First steelhead. Not the biggest steelhead we've ever seen, but just a simple, downright pretty fish that gave me an eye-catching acrobatic display and broke about 40 hours of steelheadlessness.



http://www.stripersonline.com/fish_photos/data/500/38incher-1.jpg

Miss Piggy, second night on my Block Island vaycay. John Kurlander (specialk) and I ran into a school of 30"+ stripers feeding on a flat. It was stupid good (John got 11 fish on 11 casts at one point, all bigg'uns) and the fish were fat and happy. Since there was no place to beach her, I had to lip her, and I remember thinking geez, her head's almost as big as mine. 38 inches and a fish I'll never forget.

Sadly, I don't have a pic of what I think was my favorite fish of the year. Fishing a rather small WTMA in a spot where I'd never caught anything before. It's a sharp turn in the water, and the brook is only a small stream rod's length across at this point. A big boulder provides cover and generates a seam. This is primarily a brookie stream, and the fish usually run 3-7". Imagine my surprise when I took an 11" wild brown hen, sublimely colored with faint parr marks still along her flank. Just a gorgeous creature.

I need to stop writing now before I change my mind again. ;-)

[jaybp30]

Not a great pic but this native brookie felt really good, took a 14 copper john.

http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/508/medium/0630091803.jpg

Then there was this monster in the upper Hous, fought like a log and took a 28 PT nymph. Stupid sucker.

http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/508/medium/0916091757.jpg

I also caught my first trout on a fly I tied in February. I just love this pic because it is snowing.

http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/508/medium/0118090845_01.jpg

But the best fish I took this year was a (estimated) 18" brown that I pulled out of a pretty fast run. The fish went with the current and probably went on 3 or 4 runs. I think I fell down twice but managed to land it. It was a football of a specimen. I caught it in an area that we had to hike quite a distance to get to so we were the only ones around. Wish I had a picture of that fish. I took it on a fly I invented, sort of a BH prince stone fly hybrid. Here's the fly:

http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/507/medium/IMG_0753.JPG

[Gary]

This may sound odd but the fish that stick out in my mind are the ones I did not catch. They were some very nice stripers cruising a sand flat in a R.I. salt pond for a few hours. They stuck in my head like a bad loss and got me to read about and tie flats flys. A new adventure.

[westbranchangler]

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q5/flyfishingaaron/biggestone.jpg

Here he is....

Olive over orange woven nymph in the TMA. I had no idea the fish was so big until we broke out the tape measurer... 28 inches.

[TROUTI]

That s the one !!! Awesome fish!!!

[The Fisherman]

Gary, I was planning on posting a follow up thread: "What was the best fish you didn't catch in 2009?"

We'll do that one in a few days. :-)

[Andrew]

Gary, I was planning on posting a follow up thread: "What was the best fish you didn't catch in 2009?"

We'll do that one in a few days. :-)

Striper. 123 lbs. From shore.

Didn't catch it. Didn't see it. Don't even know if it exists.

(It was the best fish I didn't catch in 2008 also...and 2007...2006...)

[grayghost]

Aaron that is one amazing fish!


In April on Cottonwood Creek Colorado catching the first fish on a 7' fiberglass rod I built a wild brown . (it was also the first fish of the year)


http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/514/medium/DSCN1410.JPG

2. One of several Landlocked Salmon and a couple of nice Brookies on the Magallaway
http://www.flyaddict.com/forums/../gallery/data/513/medium/Paul_2.jpg

[Freeloader]

I was floating the Farmington during high water in a canoe with a friend of mine with not a single fish on for some time. We came to a spot where the water was slow and calm so we relaxed and just let our rigs drift. It was silent when my budy says "Were about to catch a fish I just feel it." Before he's done closing his mouth my rod is bent in half with a hefty 18" bow diving in and out of the water. It turned the canoe around before i got it to the net.

[MarkW]

Biggest fish of this year came on my first trip out west to the Provo River , UT in march. It was bitterly cold but this rainbow got the blood moving as I chased it down river.
http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/514/medium/Provo_Rainbow_032609.JPG

Pretty fish this year was ~9 inch male brookie complete with hooked jaw from an adirondak brook after heavy rains, the size really surprized me since most of the fish in this stream are under six inches.

But the best memory of all is fishing an Adirondak brook with my youngest daughter and catching a good size rainbow that had somehow mangaged to work it's way up a small tumbling brook. Still imbeded in my memory is the pink chrome flash and the unbelief that a rainbow could fight it's way all the way upstream to where we were. But the best part of the day was the hike out with my daughter as we enjoyed the memories that late summer day had brought.

Wish I had pictures of the last two but drowned my camera fishing with TROUTI in New Hampshire in August - story for another day

[MuddlerMinnow]

Fun thread.

This photo's been seen before, but this was my favorite fish of 2009: 30" steelhead.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_400Z5iZcSWI/SvsXskiwuOI/AAAAAAAABAo/XqzN0pUpW_c/s720/DSC01622.JPG

[Escapepod]

Great thread - The best fish of this year for me is:
http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/508/thumbs/Photo_042909_002.jpg (http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1635).

This was the first quality brown taken on a #12 hendricksen in the earlier part of the year. This was alos the first qualtiy fish that I have taken at the Farmy.....I decided last year to make it a point to get to know the Farmy as all the previous half-hearted effort sfishing this river yielded very little.

[flyrodder]

There were plenty of memorable outings and plenty of good fish, but as far as size goes, it would have to be the striper I took from a Rhode Island breachway this fall. I had gone to this spot based on a reliable report of mid 20 inch bass being caught on every cast two days earlier. I spent well over an hour fishing the end of the breachway without so much as a tap and then I decided to go and try somewhere else. I was about half way back to the car when I heard a noise that sounded like somebody threw a bowling ball into the water. At first I thought it was someone on the other side throwing a lot of lead, but I could see no other anglers up inside the breachway, everyone was out at the end. I walked upstream to where I thought the noise came from. I stripped off the shooting head and about thirty feet of running line. I made one good cast right out into the middle of the breachway. The fly had barely started to swing in the current when I felt the line go tight. This one wasn’t the big one, but I remember it was a over 30 inches. While I was up there I could hear and see the activity of stripers feeding on mullet just below the surface. I would hear/see a splash and cast to the spot and often get a hook up. I only caught a handful of fish at that spot, but they were all keepers. The biggest one of them was somewhere around the 40 inch mark. Like the other fish, I saw a splash and cast to where I thought the fish was. I knew soon after the take that this one was a beast. The bass ran to the middle of the breachway and headed for the ocean. I was quick into the backing and in that strong current I had a good fight on my hands. My 10wt doubled over as I took what seemed like an eternity to get back into the fly line, and just as the backing knot was coming home, the fish would make another run. This bass was one tough customer and I was beginning to wonder who would end up winning the battle. I didn’t even get a good look at the fish until I finally got it in close. But when I first saw it by the light of my headlamp I was impressed. I will never forget looking down into the gin clear water by the light of my headlamp and seeing the large silvery form of the striper. I got the fish on to the rocks and got an estimated measurement before sending it back to be caught some other time.

[labtrout]

Wish I had a photo, but it was a 21-inch rainbow taken on the lower Farmington on an Isonychia Parachute pattern at dusk in July. Biggest fish I've taken on a dry. He must have jumped 6-8 times.

[pvansch1]

I drove out to Salisbury with my mother in May, she had to close out my grandmothers bank account at the National Iron Bank, Nanna had worked there for 30+ years. Anyway, I had a rod in the car, and some flies, my mom asked why? I said I always have on with me, you never know when you'll find a spot and have a few minutes. She told me she had a spot to show me, her father would take her there as little girl, she would play on the bankside while he fished. She found the little stream, we parked the car and walked in. It was well over grown from what she remembered, but she was sure it was the place. I tied on an old fly from my box, it was one tied by my grandfather 40 or so years ago, it's there for that "special ocassion" and this was it. The second cast brought to hand a tough 8" or 9" brookie. I showed her the fish and let it go.
I cut the fly off and handed it to her, she asked why and I said to her, Gramp tied that fly 40 some years ago, I caught a fish in his secret spot, the fly is now yours, the memory is ours.

[MarkW]

Thanks for that very nice story !

[Catch 22]

Very nice, Pete.

[dlaffin1]

had to be the 22lb sea run from the rio gallegos in southern patagonia. the fish had the perfect take and the perfect fight. was landed and released safely and was followed by a few bottles of quilmes enjoyed bankside with friends. i'll put the pic in the gallery. still have no clue how to do this.

Here it is :-)

http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/514/medium/argentina_080.jpg


http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2320&cat=514

[Apache Trout]

Awesome fish Dan!
Good stuff Pete!

[spike]

My 32" mirror-bright steelhead I caught in NY in October.

[sickb4st4rd]

had to be the 22lb sea run

Dan between this fish and your earlier Hollywood Striper you're practically a frikkin Rock Star!

[Ruby River]

http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/data/510/thumbs/1229c.JPG (http://www.flyaddict.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2329)


She was a 12 pd. beauty that flashed a beautiful silver as she jumped and ran down the river! Needed a smoke after that one!

[Apache Trout]

I really liked the colors on this little wild brown I caught. :)
http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt202/Alpinetrout/hardy3.jpg?t=1261623690

[dlaffin1]

Dan between this fish and your earlier Hollywood Striper you're practically a frikkin Rock Star!

twas a good year for me. thanks

[Z Fisher]

My best fish of the year was on Penn's Creek in late May. I recall it being a Brown but it could have just as easily been a Rainbow. A quick search for photos from the day yielded nothing. I vaguely recall a photo of me holding the fish but it's lost to the electronic digits of my hard drive.

The fish was not a big one. Perhaps fifteen or sixteen inches at most. It was healthy, fat and gave a satisfactory fight. What made this fish the best of the year was the very satisfying manner in which everything came together -- the weather, stream-flow, insects, fly selection and casting -- to yield a beautiful fish, in a difficult lie, to my net.

The day had been rainy and I was wet and cold. While my rain gear had protected me from the bulk of the deluge, the dampness and air temps in the high 40s made it feel far colder and wetter than it actually was. Fortunately, I had put a lightweight fleece into my newly acquired Fishpond pack without which the cool air would have chased me from the river.

The rain had let up about an hour or so before sunset and the Hendricksons appeared out of no where in their great swirling columns of mating bliss. They then obliged with a massive spinner fall that drove the fish mad.

There were swirls close by but the most inviting looking rises were hard against the far bank under the grasping arms of stream-side mountain laurel. One particular fish was aggressively feeding under a particularly large bush. The only way to get a fly to his lie was to cast to an opening in the bushes about twenty feet upstream and then hope for a good drift.

I tied on a #10 rusty spinner and made several spectacular casts into the three foot wide break in the bushes. I had little back cast room so the casts had to be technically perfect -- good load on the road and line shooting freely. I have rarely cast so well or so accurately.

While memory does not serve me well on the specific count, it only took a few drifts before he took the fly. The strike was right out of the textbook on how a strike should look or feel. It was one of those moments that plays in slow motion upon my memory of the evening - the splash, the fly line zipping off the water as I set the hook, the wake of the line as the fish sought cover.

The fight was relatively brief but included enough drama to be interesting. It was my last fish of a trip that had only yielded a few.