starrfish
Well-Known Member
Caught a 19.5" rainbow trout today from the Saluda River outside Columbia, SC today. I used use my 3/4 weight Eagle Claw Granger rod at 7.5' and a 6x (3lb) tippet, and a size 14 Pheasant Tail Nymph. I was working a run for about an hour and was down to my last cast before moving locations, and BANG! Fly Stops Dead, and the fight begins and went on for about 15 min. It didn't jump but it did have several violent head shakes, and some big bulldog runs to the bottom structure.
Saluda River here in SC is a "put, grow, take" stocked River. Fish are stocked annually by helicopter, many at a small size with a few trophy's thrown in, and grow pretty rapidly over the next few months (DNR states up to an inch a month, but I find this number inflated). Very few of these trout survive the brutal SC summer heat, and low dissolved oxygen levels in this river. So he went into the creel bag and will make some nice trout dinners. Had this been from a stream in PA, NC, or even upstate SC where fish had a chance to survive more than part of a year and breed (no breeding going on in this area of the Saluda), he would have been released. Released 4 others that were much smaller, which were caught on Light Cahill size 18 dry flies.
Not a bad way to start off the 2012 fishing season!
Oh yeah, and brewed 2 all grain beers in 1 day on Friday. Great weekend!
Saluda River here in SC is a "put, grow, take" stocked River. Fish are stocked annually by helicopter, many at a small size with a few trophy's thrown in, and grow pretty rapidly over the next few months (DNR states up to an inch a month, but I find this number inflated). Very few of these trout survive the brutal SC summer heat, and low dissolved oxygen levels in this river. So he went into the creel bag and will make some nice trout dinners. Had this been from a stream in PA, NC, or even upstate SC where fish had a chance to survive more than part of a year and breed (no breeding going on in this area of the Saluda), he would have been released. Released 4 others that were much smaller, which were caught on Light Cahill size 18 dry flies.
Not a bad way to start off the 2012 fishing season!
Oh yeah, and brewed 2 all grain beers in 1 day on Friday. Great weekend!