Private Water @ North Toe

[Al]

I was fortunate to be invited to fish some private water on the North Toe River this past weekend. I have been invited twice before but always had to ask for a rain check due to other obligations. It finally worked out and I'm now thinking "if I get another invitation those other obligations are going on the back burner".
This particular private section was included as 1/3 mile of river frontage that goes along with a 1940's era house which my host uses as his "mountain get away"


This section of the North Toe is not much more that a small stream - probably only half the width of the Smith River. Not particularly deep and containing lots of boulders which gave this old timer a little trouble maneuvering over. BUT - boy did it contain some nice fish!



I soon found out that 4x tippet is no match for a 20 inch trout in a boulder filled stream. I broke off more fish than I caught until I switched to 3 and 2x. Even then a lot of the fish pulled out because I was not agile enough to hop over the rocks to follow them when they decide to head up or downstream.



My host showed me how it is done and set the standard for the rest of the weekend. When I first got there I thought was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. Boy was I wrong. Most of the fish have been caught before and are very picky as to what they eat. The water is also small enough that if you hook a fish and it takes off it will put down the other fish for awhile. These are all wild trout that spawned and grew up right along this stretch of the North Toe. From time to time they harvest 1 or 2 for the table but for the most part it is catch and release. The only ones fishing this section are my host and his guests
most of whom have some connection to the veteran community.


I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because for the most part I was alone and it is difficult to fight, net and release a +20 inch fish in shallow water on your own while at the same time taking photos.


I broke off on several fish larger than the one above. My biggest fish for the weekend was this 25 inch rainbow (my net is 23 inches from top of net to end of handle - the fish overlapped by a couple inches when I momentarily laid them side by side. I was by myself and feared I had killed the fish but after some CPR it remained upright behind while I proceeded to hook and lose it's mate. When I looked back it was still there so I tried to take a photo of it underwater - it swam off when I nudged it with my camera.



You get greedy and want one like that with every cast but it does not work out that way. I worked very hard for each fish. It really became frustrating when you'd hook up on a nice one and it would take off for parts unknown and I could not control or follow it before it broke off.  Photo below is of what most of the fish looked like - nice but on this section after catching a +20 inch fish you almost want to do a long distance release so you can get back to the big ones.


Lucky - you bet!  I'm also going back soon.

[Woolly Bugger]

Good on ya Al!


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[Dougfish]

Nice, Al!

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[Phil]

Damn, look at Al catching honker rainbows! The dep lam.  Nice work, sir.   bd;0