Well Done.......!

Sometimes everything goes perfectly and the big fish that you have on ends up in the net despite giving one heck of a good account of itself......and that's exactly what happened on Friday November 14, 2008 when I met Scott and Diane Bertrand of Greensboro for the second of two days of fishing in the mtns.

Scott and Diane were up for the week taking some vacation time and we had already fished earlier in the week and done pretty well. We had fished under challenging conditions on Tuesday Nov 11, 2008 and still caught a good many fish, but today offered hope of something much better, a stream with greatly improved water levels and that still had a touch of color to it. And the hope rang true, as it was a great day. It was great being that it was on the heels of a trip the day before where we had a 50 fish day and landed 3 fish over 20 inches. Today was to be a close to near repeat of that.

Diane really worked for this fish. And I must say that as a guide that is perhaps the most satisfying part of it for me. I mean, don't get me wrong I love it when big fish lose all caution and just take the fly without hesitation. We all love times like that. But Diane worked for this one. We could see the fish. It successfully evaded our efforts for over an hour, but we kept at it. We endured some tangles and many fly changes. But Diane stayed at it. She made good casts.....concentrated on good drifts, nice mends, all of it. Then the moment happened.......just before we were ready to leave Diane made one more cast. It was the one.

The fish let the fly pass its position, and I watched as Diane carefully took in line to control the slack, made a careful mend, then for reasons that none of us know the fish turned and swam slowly downstream and inhaled the fly in .....to which I said without hesitation "he's got it......" to which Diane responded with a perfectly timed hookset, and the battle was on. The fish made a hard run across the pool, made a wallowing splash that would make a wallowing pig in a pen proud, then made another hard dash up a few feet, then it jumped. We gawked at the size of the fish as it made an effort for freedom in the air. The fish then sped upstream and when it reached a shallow ledge it leaped again for freedom, this time at least four feet out of the water, and landed with a big splash but still hooked up. The battle then became a bulldog battle on the bottom. I watched as Diane responded to every "coaching tip" I would give....she kept the rod up, gave line when necessary, took up line too, and did a masterful job at this cat and mouse game of give and take......I mean as well as I have ever witnessed. And she did it on light tippet, another feat that isn't easy no matter how long you've been fly fishing. I told her I was amazed and wished I had video taped that fighting of a fish to use as an example to my fly fishing school students as to how you effectively fight a big fish on light leader material. Needless to say I was impressed!

We photographed the fish then released it to fight again another day. And Diane went on to catch another couple of fish like that, one of which we got to net and another in which the fly just pulled out as I was preparing to net the fish. It was a great day..........indeed....lots of fish and some big fish and an impressive display of fish fighting skills by Diane. Simply put, she did a fantastic job. And this was one of those "get the net......!" for sure.