Ben Comes Back With a New Goal

Last year Ben made time in his schedule to fish aboard the F/V Southeastern Fly. The fishing was good last year and Ben caught his largest brown trout. When we headed off to launch the drifter, Ben announced he wanted to catch an even larger brown this trip. That puts pressure on the man sitting in the rower's bench but at least we had a goal and knew the target.

The day prior I was also on the river and couldn't buy a nice brown trout, certainly not a brown trout bigger than the brown Ben brought to the net last year. I promptly told Ben the same. Ben did not make a quick reply and right then I knew he was serious. 

We launched the boat. Ben was fishing pretty good on this day. I was ask him to "put it right there" and he would. OK that's part of the fishing game and we scored early. Then we started scoring often and we were onto something. That something was brightening our day and bringing smiles to our faces.

"Toss it right there" would be heard throughout the day. "There's one" followed many times. Then, it happened. "Toss it right there" and then "it's a big one". Soon we were bringing the fish into deeper water without structure. Ben would be able to fight this fish without interference. Keeping the rod tip up with a good bend in the mid-section was the plan and Ben was doing a fine job. Soon Ben got the head up and the net was slid under the brown.

Ben said "This one should get me in the 20+ Club". So we measured it. The fish was close to 20", but try as we might this one was 1/4" short. I explained it was 1/4" short and Ben understood. We revived the fish. It didn't take long before the fish was kicking around inside the net. The hoop was lowered and the fish left us with some big smiles. This fish was close but not quite 20", but it was Ben's largest brown... so far.

 If you are a seasoned angler or have never picked up a fly rod and want to set up a day on the river e-mail or call/text 615-796-5143 to book a day on the water. For additional booking information see our Homepage and to see the latest fishing report click here.