This fish courtesy was one of those beautiful father and child moments. We were fishing a little stream deep in the bush 90mins from Melbs, after some heavy rain through the night and day. We had been curious re how well this usual knee high stream would fish when heavily fed/oxygenated/better cover.
Final day, after a couple of small brownies the day prior by my Dad & two shaked off attempts by me… the stream became a fast river and the sun was about to set. I chucked on my biggest hardbody lure and gave a final cast for the eve, nestled in on a steep bank, snags everywhere.
I hooked on but my reel was broken and the drag wasnt working with my old 4 pound braid on, twas a dangerous fight against the current! It jumped and flopped and ran hard. My old man, was crossing the bank above me and called out, 'where's your net??' I'd left it on the other side of the river… sigh, wasn't gonna land this onto the bank without a snap off.
So just as I lifted the fish out of the water, the line of course snapped and my big ol trout fell and went to join its two siblings who'd bested me the day before. But my Dad came out of nowhere and slid in on one knee in the mud, plunged his hands into the brown water and 3 seconds later pulled the fish (and my expensive lure) out of the water!
40mins later, we drove deep into the bush, lit a big fire, poured some drinks and sat down to eat the 1.25kg (2.7 pounds) of fish!
Trout fishing in big rains = success ha.
45cm (18 inches) brown, both our PBs 🙂
(20 to max 30cm the usual catches in those little knee high streams)
Posted by JackThcAcc