First things first, I want to give a huge shoutout and thank you to u/aestheticy.
A few weeks ago, I made a post here saying I wanted to get into fly fishing here in Colorado . I was honestly about to buy one of those cheap Walmart setups because I didn’t know where to begin. A bunch of people shared advice, but this dude went way beyond that and offered to send me one of his extra set ups for FREE! He even shipped it to me with overnight shipping! That gesture alone pushed me to really learn instead of just “trying it.”
Today, I landed my first brown trout. On a streamer!
Uncompahgre River
I’m not gonna lie, I was shaking a little. I remembered to keep my rod tip up and started stripping, and everything just clicked. I didn’t have a net yet, so I did my best to handle the fish carefully — washed my hands before touching it, took a couple quick pictures, removed the fly, and let him go. He swam away fast and strong.
I do want to ask the community something: Since I didn’t have a net, the fish ended up resting on some wet rocks with water around it for a moment while I got the hook out. I tried to be quick. Is that okay, or should I be doing something different next time? I really want to respect the fish and handle them the right way as I keep learning.
But yeah… I’m hooked. Thank you again u/aestheticy — seriously. And thank you to this community for the knowledge, encouragement, and inspiration.
🎣❤️
Posted by Same_Football9277
2 Comments
Beautiful fish and congrats! I do think fishing with a net is part of the bare minimum starter pack. I pack insanely light/DIY, but even if it’s wildly inconvenient, I still bring the net. Not all fish make it under even the best circumstances, but we gotta protect what we have left.
That is fantastic! So glad that you enjoyed it and were successful. It would probably be best to get a rubber net soon in the future, you never know when you may need it on a big fish. do you have forceps to get the hook out too? If you don’t I would highly recommend both of those.