Tiger Day

[LOAH]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#000000][size 4]This week, scientificangler and I decided that we were overdue for a good trip in search of big fish. Tiger trout would be the main attraction and at this time of year, the colors on the males would surely be rich.

We arrived at dawn after driving through near white-out conditions in the mountains. That was a little bit nerve-racking, but we made it.

As we pulled up, the surface was alive with ripples over the shallow flats and we got busy with our fly rods, pulling in small cutthroat.



Many came to hand, but all were quite small. My bug of choice was a tan killer caddis and Keoni was using chironomids, which I later switched to.

Abandoning the flats to hunt down some tiger trout, we split up and spent a couple of hours working on the frustrating beasts. They were mostly hugging the shoreline and playing hard to get.

These tigers see quite a bit of pressure, so they can be difficult to trick into biting. Many presentations were followed, but ultimately rejected and I finally scored on a black marabou jig that Tube Dude sent me.



Though I found a whole mess of really nice tigers where I normally do, that was the only one willing to bite. Quite a few more cutts were pulled in on the fly rod though, some on the jigs too.

Keoni was into his own mess of tigers, but quite far from me. He actually got a few on a pheasant tail nymph, one of which was pretty impressive.

After we met back up, we walked around to the other side of the lake and searched for some other brutes. There were several really nice ones that we could see, but they were not interested in biting anything.

Back to the flats we went and took advantage of the willing cutts again, catching plenty more with ease.



A lucky cast in the right spot at the right time brought me another good male tiger on patrol. He had quite the hunch back.



Keoni was getting pretty frustrated with some of the larger cutthroat that he could see, but would only sniff his bug and swim away. Hordes of small cutts were all over him, but he kept trying and finally got a better one.



Still wanting some more tiger action, I went back to my sweet spot to see if the lock jaw had passed. It was a good move and I pulled in three chunky honeys in about 10 minutes. Wow!







It was just what I needed and it capped off the day nicely.

We departed at dusk and had an even scarier drive home than our way up. A big storm had moved in and left us creeping through many miles at only 25mph.

With both of us worn out from the day, it was rough getting through the snowy nightmare. The drive was complete with gas tankers stuck in the middle of the road and what seemed like a drunk driver leading the caravan, several cars ahead of us.

We were glad to get back to dry asphalt and eventually back to our families.



Happy Fishing, Humans.[/size][/#000000][/font]
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[remo_5_0]

Great post, nice fish!
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[Jmaze]

Love the posts, keep them coming. Now if you only duck hunted....
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[LOAH]

I wouldn't mind eating duck on occasion. While fishing, I've found some great duck hideouts too...

Regretfully, I sold my 20ga about 10 years ago and likely won't get any new shotguns for a few years.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Nicely done there. Glad you made it there and back again safely. What some folks'll do just to wrap their hands around a few slimy spotted toads!

[redneck_delux]

Nice fish! looks like you had a fruitful day.. one of these days im going to have to learn how to fly fish. duck is great to eat if ya know how to prepare it i prefer to jerky mine. waterfowl hunting is my religion....

[Flyfishinglover]

Gosh those tigers look amazing I miss pulling out some 17" tigers out of my Lilly pads >_< its a bummer my spot is frozen up till late spring.
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[LOAH]

Thought I'd add a pic of today's lunch break brown. She was all spawned out, but her bigger buddies are still churning. I'm just glad the upstream construction has halted and the water has cleared up.
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[gaetzchamp]

Loah-

Some of those tigers have some mighty big shoulders on them. Jealous that I've not been able to make it out - Hopefully Strawberry this weekend.

Later,

Gaetz
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[pezvela]

What a great day you two had! magnificent fish and beautiful pic's. It is always a treat to fish with Keoni as well. I have been away from the forum for many months, but now I'm back and looking forward to reading your posts as well as the others here. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and thanks for all the posts through the years. Pezvela
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[LOAH]

Thanks, Mr. Sailfish![]

Glad to see you around.
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