Selective fall Brown Trout, its not a numbers game
“Fall 2025, Bert has been alluding me for most of the 2025 season on the Big Spring Creek. Last week, in 12" of vodka clear water, he took one of my “net head” midge emergers using a 6'2" glass rod loaded with 2wt. line. A lightweight shorty 50" furled leader on 5 feet of 6x was my game plan. I got into the water for one reason only: to catch Bert.”
As I have gotten older, I enjoy hunting fish rather than prospecting for them. It has become a bit of an obsession over the years. There is always this one fish every season that seems to elude me, no matter what. Bert, as I have named him, is not necessarily big; he is just very weary, alert, and bright. He rules the roost in a favorite shallow run that has a lot of “signal fish”. By signal fish, I mean other browns that will alert him when danger is near. Bert had the other smaller browns watching his back all season long. Wading into Big Spring Creek for the last time this season, it took me a good 25 minutes to position myself correctly. I knew my first cast would be my last. It was a bit of a one-shot deal, one cast only. On the very first drift, he tipped his nose up in that slow meandering run and confidently sipped in the little #17 “net head” midge. The RIO LighLine DT is the quietest, most supple line I own, and I'm pretty sure this helped a great deal. I use this specific Rio line on my very lightest-weight cane rods, 1 and 2 weights. Using a silk furled leader was also a good plan in hindsight. I caught him on a $70.00 6'2" 2wt. a glass rod —sometimes the best tool for the job comes pretty unexpectedly! I forgot my 6'9" 2wt. cane rod back in Urbana, so I had to find an alternate. Once I realized my nucklehead error in Pennsylvania, I went to a Cabela's to hopefully save my trip and found something that might suffice. I was pleasantly surprised and still know nothing about this little green rod other than it did the job quite well!
Anyway, that's my elusive Bert yarn for 2025, and it ended well for both of us. I gently turned him upright back into the current, and he bolted back to his brood.
If you're interested in tying my “net head” midge emerger, check out my previous entry to get a gander at this deadly little morsel: net head emerger
As always, thanks for letting me share ~ Clint
