Battling a Gargantuan Rainbow in a Tiny Stream 5-7-2010 - Jeff Wilkins ...

The day was Friday May 7, 2010. Diane Bertrand had joined me for a day of fishing on the splendid private spring creek I have access to. It is a fish haven, full of large fish and some gigantic rainbows. We started on the lower end and caught some fish, even some large ones, and Diane was getting warmed up for what was to come.

Little did I know I was about to witness a near perfect job of playing fish. We would tie on a fly, I'd give Diane a tip or two on where to cast, watch the drift, see the fish take, set the hook, and then the arduous task of landing a fish of gigantic proportions. Let me tell you....this ain't easy!!!! There are a lot of fly anglers that would have broken those fish off. But not Diane, she did everything I suggested, just as I instructed her.....and the result was almost every beast we hooked, which was probably at least a dozen fish over 20 inches, every one of them except maybe one I can remember ended up in the net. It takes a near perfect job of line control and rod control to pull that off. I mean when a six pound tippet separates you and a 10-12 lb fish who is dashing wildly, jumping, thrashing, head shaking......simply put bad things can happen. Unless you play them like Diane did. It was great....and a lot of fun to watch.

That is why Diane has now earned the nickname "The Dutchess of Trout...".