What Lies Beneath

Morning dawned early for Alan and Hardy as they were up at 6:30am so as to meet Bill at Solomon's at 7:30am for a full day's float. Misty driving en route with early morning coffee fueling the journey. Met Bill at the canoe put in next to Solomon's, air was 54 degrees, water even colder. Let's go.

The start of the day was slow, maybe it was the coffee, maybe it was the lack of breakfast, maybe it was getting off the river last night at 9pm and eating dinner at 11:30pm. Who knows. Regardless, fishing was a bit slow despite some gorgeous water that presented itself early in the float. Alan started the day off with a nice rainbow on a Caddis and got a few more fish that way. Hardy switched to a Woolybugger with a nymph dropper and immediately hooked into 3-4 native browns by the recycling plant.

All in all, it was a good morning's fishing, followed by a lovely Bill lunch of steak, grilled veggies, pasta salad, cheese, crackers, olives -- the most excellent lunch you would expect when out with Bill. Refueled and ready for an afternoon's adventure, little did we know what lay beneath. We hit a number of very productive pools, catching numerous 12" healthy, fat rainbows and browns, along with the occasional brook.

Alan continued to plug away with Bill's hexagraph while Hardy plumbed the depths with Bill's Helios. Around about 2pm, Hardy sent a cast into a pool underneath a tree, fouling line around his feet as he did so. Gathering up the extra line allowed the sinking line to sink even more. There was a thud and a flash and all of sudden, it wasn't about managing errant line. Hardy yelled, "I think it's a big one." Bill looked knowingly at Alan and measured something out close to 12" with his hands. In light of said skepticism, Hardy began stripping in line quietly. It was only when it stopped coming in that others became convinced.

Keeping pressure on the line and adjusting the drag correctly, Hardy hunkered down to play the fish. It was about at this time that Bill looked back at Alan and said, "It's a monster." Staying calm and focused, Hardy kept this trout on the line for more than 20 minutes. After that, it surrendered to Bill's waiting net.

First, we put him on the cooler to see how big he was. Bill's cooler is 24" and he frequently uses it to bring a measured perspective to "fish talk." Hardy's Monster almost filled the length and Bill's estimate was 20" in girth. At 22"L x 20"G x 20"G, that brings us to 11lbs. Woot!

After many photos, we released this beautiful trout back into the Connecticut River where we hope it will live for many more years.