Up a river without a net

Unfortunately, this brings about certain draw backs. One issue in particular is that you have to be on your game to throw a fine enough tippet with a big enough streamer and still find a way to land a giant brown with your rig. Even with the aid of a talented net man, it isn’t always possible to get these fish to stop much less get close enough and tired enough to hit the net.

As you may have inferred from the title, all of the things suddenly become much more difficult if you don’t have a net or a net buddy. A couple of years ago we had a long run of browns. The ice stayed off the rivers way later than usual, and once the browns were done doing their spawn activity they just stayed around for quite a while. I’m pretty sure this event occurred in mid January. I had gotten up at 3 am in order to ensure the good stuff, because the river was hot and the fish were banging streamers. LET’S GO! I had been off the water for a couple of days fishing for something different, and I had to re-rig rods and move bags, waders and everything else over to a different vehicle. Little did I know that I did indeed get the landing net out of the first car, but I did not put it into the new car. So, I make my two-hour run over to my favorite giant fish chasing runs, I get all of my stuff out of the ride, I put it all together, I get my waders on, and “OH SHIT, I left my net.” I feel confident that most people, if you really understood the situation, would respond the same way that I did. Now what do you do?

The objective of these trips is to find a 40-inch 40-pound donkey of a brown trout, get it landed, and take a cool picture to prove how awesome the fish are that live in the Upper Midwest. Sure, there is an aspect of enjoying fishing, a challenge, trying new flies, testing my capabilities, and all of that, but… It’s really about BIGGINS in many ways. So, what do you do? You are two hours away from your net. You have 3 or 4 nets at home, which makes it difficult to justify (at least to your spouse) buying another one at the store, when it doesn’t open for another 5 hours. You know that even with a 9wt rod and 12 pound test tippets you are at an extreme disadvantage with some of the fish that lurk in these waters. You don’t want to kill a fish because you couldn’t get it landed in time to not completely tire it out. “But hell, I guess I’m already here. Send it.”

I grab the duffel bag full of two of everything. I grab three rods. I grab two pairs of sunglasses. I grab an extra pair of gloves. You have to make sure you have a spare hoodie or jacket or towel. It might be the difference when it is really cold and you get wet. Don’t forget the tripod. I must have the tripod even if I forgot the net, because pic or it didn’t happen. I make my way down to the river. Walk the required half a mile to get as close to perfectly in between access points as possible. It’s weird that the fish are always in those spots. I get to my spot and wait. Of course, there are fish porpoising as soon as I walk up. Of course, there are fish chasing on the banks. Of course, today is one of the few days of the year that you know it’s on just listening in the dark. “Whelp, I figure we are going to be tail grabbing today.”

As soon as I can fish at first light, I have already found the part of the run that is holding fish. I’ve already determined exactly where to cast and exactly when to mend. I know exactly where I want this 6-inch sculpture of wire and feathers to be and how I want it to act when it gets there. Sure enough, first cast has an absolute monster chasing it through the run. I swing it out and almost get to start stripping the fly up the bank and it gets gobbled. “Oh no, now what!?” I have a plan in place, but the fish is going to do what it does, and I’m going to have to try to adjust as the fight goes along. The positive thing about the browns is that they aren’t just going to roast you like a steelhead would. They like to pull hard, but they also like to bulldog down into a deep run and rub their face on the bottom. I assume they do that to get the hook out, but I’m no ichthyologist.

Once the fish has eaten the fly, everything becomes about managing the fish in the river so that you can have a chance to land it. If a fish like this one races down stream through rapids and rocks, then your chances of landing it drop dramatically. It can be done, but you need to be ready to run or swim, and I am not Brad Pitt. I am of the defeat their soul type when it comes to fighting fish. I want to be on them hard and fast, and I want them to work for every inch they get from me. Usually, the fights are shorter and the fish swim away faster after being landed if I work them aggressively. I put the breaks on hard and steered him into a long stretch of 4-foot-deep water, and now I have our donkey moving in the right direction. This wasn’t plan A, but we are in position where it's not likely to pull off around any rocks, and I can move around and continue to steer the fish if I need to.

We may be 3 minutes into the fight, and I have this massive brown swimming about 9 feet away from me, in a deep run, and I can’t get the fish to budge. I’m changing directions, I’m pointing and pulling just as much as I can, but I just can’t get it to move at all. I finally made it turn a few times, but the 9 wt really didn’t have the backbone I needed. So, we settle into the fight. Around 10 minutes into fighting ole boy, I have gotten extreme with my tactics, because I need to land this fish or cut it off. Like I said, I do not want to kill these fish. Especially one like this that might show up next year as a world record. So, I have to take a chance at tail grabbing this fish and I need to do it now. I need to make him swing by me, and I can’t miss. I Do Not Miss! Breathing hard and screaming loudly I bring my little 35-incher over to the bank and can’t help but smile. It’s one of 3 browns that I’ve caught that I really didn’t think a 9 wt was enough, and trying to catch one of those fish solo up a river without a net. “No way!”