Your Most memorable fish of the 2019 season

[hill loch gold]

My most memorable salmon of the season came from the girvan in july, when the river was at a summer low. I was down cutting the grass with one of my mates on the syndicate we have and my son and nephew were there spinning for troot with number 0 mepps. Me and sanny had took a breather and went up to the hut for lunch when the young ones came rushing in to say they had saw salmon jumping in the pool just below the hut. We sat and watched and sure enough there was a couple of big boils and splashes. The youngsters went down but didn’t get any interest. I went over to see them and tied a 7g toby on to my boys rod and hooked a spanking wee grilse 2nd cast. After that the boys had 2 follows right in to the last and turn away on the upstream toby as well.

I also had a few memorable troot this year before i went into salmon mode.....here’s 2 of them

 

[marty31]

Good thread Jordan

I’ve not much to choose from to be honest as I fished less this season, so it’ll have to be this one. Purely for the reason that the earliest are always the best in my view, and after a few losses since season start, and others around me picking up some nice springers on the river, i thought a spring fish was going to evade me but got in there right at the death of May.

View attachment 40253


DCH

perfection DCH silver perfection

 

[keirstream]

Nothing too memorable for me this season. Nothing big so the fish that really did float my boat was the fish that saved my spring granny for the first time in 40 years. A late may fish. Wonderful.
Just a peach from Glendelvine on the Tay.

 

[yellowbelly]

My most memorable salmon of the season came from the girvan in july, when the river was at a summer low. I was down cutting the grass with one of my mates on the syndicate we have and my son and nephew were there spinning for troot with number 0 mepps. Me and sanny had took a breather and went up to the hut for lunch when the young ones came rushing in to say they had saw salmon jumping in the pool just below the hut. We sat and watched and sure enough there was a couple of big boils and splashes. The youngsters went down but didn’t get any interest. I went over to see them and tied a 7g toby on to my boys rod and hooked a spanking wee grilse 2nd cast. After that the boys had 2 follows right in to the last and turn away on the upstream toby as well.

I also had a few memorable troot this year before i went into salmon mode.....here’s 2 of them

That middle photo of the trout is a cracker, lovely colours on the fish, nice to see.

 

[cgaines10]

Well it's been a poor season for me on the salmon front, but I had a decent season sea trout wise. This one came after hooking 3 and loosing them all the night before. After getting to the river and waiting for darkness, the river came alive and the sea trout were showing all over the place. I went down into the tail and 3rd cast in. The line tightened & all hell broke loose! It was a great feeling to finally get it in the net after numbers runs and going airborne.

Nothing better than seeing it swim away strong for me too. :thumb:



This is my best brown trout so far, caught early on in May. I sat for a good half an hour just watching the LDO rise come on, watching the smaller fish get to work. Then this started to rise tight into the far bank near an old fallen tree. The cast was at my limit and the varying currents meant it was going to be hard to get a decent drift. It put up a hell of a **** on my light rod

 

[mc andy]

Probably be this one for me, was the first of my season a Tay April fish and always nice to get of the mark.

 

[ashley]

View attachment 40310

My first, and only salmon. North Tyne. 11lb 3oz.... Brilliant in every way.It was a long time coming, and I'd rather not think of how much money I've spent on salmon fishing since I had my first week on the Spey in 1987 ha ha And I look forward to next season.

 

[MCXFisher]

I can't post a picture of my most memorable salmon of 2019 as it got away. It was a fresh silver fish of over 20 lbs that twice took me the full length of Gallander's pool on the Conon before throwing the hook. I enjoyed 5-6 minutes of heart racing full bore adrenalin pumping fight in heavy water. When it ended, the only word I could muster was "Wow".

 

[woodcockandsewin]

2nd cast, zzz zzz zzz, lift, bang....rod snapped cleanly 6 inches above the butt. Run after the broken 11 feet so I don't lose it when the leader breaks...10 minutes later, 98cms of sea liced silver beached. I think it's called "playing off the reel!"

 

[nwsalar]

Flowers River, Labrador

 

[Lamson v10]

Good thread Jordan

I’ve not much to choose from to be honest as I fished less this season, so it’ll have to be this one. Purely for the reason that the earliest are always the best in my view, and after a few losses since season start, and others around me picking up some nice springers on the river, i thought a spring fish was going to evade me but got in there right at the death of May.

View attachment 40253


DCH

That's on beautiful salmo DCH :thumb:

 

[keirstream]

2nd cast, zzz zzz zzz, lift, bang....rod snapped cleanly 6 inches above the butt. Run after the broken 11 feet so I don't lose it when the leader breaks...10 minutes later, 98cms of sea liced silver beached. I think it's called "playing off the reel!"

View attachment 40320

That would have been interesting to say the least.
The attachment is not showing unfortunately.

 

[cgaines10]

2nd cast, zzz zzz zzz, lift, bang....rod snapped cleanly 6 inches above the butt. Run after the broken 11 feet so I don't lose it when the leader breaks...10 minutes later, 98cms of sea liced silver beached. I think it's called "playing off the reel!"

View attachment 40320

Attachment not working

 

[marty31]

Nothing too memorable for me this season. Nothing big so the fish that really did float my boat was the fish that saved my spring granny for the first time in 40 years. A late may fish. Wonderful.
Just a peach from Glendelvine on the Tay.
View attachment 40304

very nice salmon, would certainly float my boat too, late may and june a fast becoming my favourite time in these changing times we seem to be living in, lets hope they don't dry up like the dismal back ends of late

 

[Method man]

I’ve not had a memorable moment/fish of the season but on the whole I’ve had a pretty successful & enjoyable one.
Had a good few days where I wasn’t expecting anything, continually going through the motions & surprisingly picked up multiple fish on a few occasions.
Also had days where you would’ve bet your house on a fish & struggled to see a fin.....
I suppose that’s what keeps us going back!

Had a fish on a new beat so that was a positive



Another line of interest for 2020

Pretty much decided I can’t be bothered with the nith or tweed this backend so I’m more than happy that the season is over.

ATB
MM

 

[Loxie]

View attachment 40295
My first salmon on a dry fly

Can't see the attachment sadly!

 

[Hardyreels]

A good fisherman always has a good excuse at the ready and this season I've got one backed up by history...….

The worst drought ever known to record keeping people occurred in south central and parts of western Alaska this year. That in and of itself nullified the king and silver salmon fishing throughout my region on the whole.

September found me camped near a tidewater hoping to meet some tide riders as they made their way up a river. Fate has a funny way at times or so it seams because on my second night camped there came one monster of a storm. High winds accompanied by 3 1/2 inches of rain in just under 12 hours.

My tent held due to very diligent and experienced set up and I stayed dry but the river was no longer at a low water state, no not at all. Bank full and bringing everything in store down with the flow but water long overdue had come.

It's a relatively small watershed by Alaskan standards and prior experiences with the high and dirty told me that she would drop soon so long as the rain subsided. The third day saw still dirty water but to the knowing eye dropping it was and so I sallied forth and put my Dee Monkey (thanks Patrick) to the river in a serious manner. By early evening things were coming quite clean and visibility was actually good so I focused on spots where I knew of fish to seek refuge as they travel and then...…



Subtle on the take but a real racer that one according to the handle of my Fishpond / Nomad boat net was just short of a yard of freshness complete with a bunch of sea lice.



Steelhead trout and I hadn't noticed how quickly those little lice could move about a fish but they can get along. I've done well catching these for such an abbreviated season as provided to me and so long as the freeze holds off another 4 days I'll get another crack at them yet.

I fished Wednesday & Thursday of this past week and got 2 more as well as a good bunch of char with some fairly long ones. I have been alone on all my fall fishing so the pictures are rudimentary. I've had three of those fish go blazing away while I fumbled to push a shutter button for a Boutique shot so I'm going with tails with the head still in the net.

Rules for steelhead are C&R only and do not remove a fish from the water. Hoping for a few more but that one may be the best of the lot. Got a few silvers but no kings this year and some dandy rainbow trout.

That's me

 

[Grassy_Knollington]

Time rich and catch poor this year. From slim slim pickings of 2 Fish :redface:. Having caught only 2, I can remember them both pretty well....

On the toss of a coin here’s another picture of my first Yorkshire Salmon courtesy of MCX guide services.

 

[Rennie]

One that Stuck in the Mind!

Well this girl sticks in my memory.One or two of you may well notice the bit of water she came from!.Any way, on the 17ft LPXe, 3D 1/3/5 and a tip and a 1 1/2" Black n Orange tube.I remember it all from the take(a good old double thump right out in the fast powerful current) and the way she headed off back towards Dundee wiv me flee and refused to give it back.All 50yds of amnesia and a good 20yds + of Dacron backing just melted off the reel as I cheerfully cranked up the brake, swore loudly and burnt me fingers on the rim of the reel!.
70 odd yds of line out in the blink of an eye accompanied by the smell of burning flesh!, but it took a lot longer to winch it all back an inch at a time.
Any way, she'll keep me awake on night shift all through the winter re-living the fight. Couldn't have asked for any more.

Pedro.

PS, blowed if I know why I'm on me side like that, wonder why all the water hasn't run away like that!

 

[keirstream]

Any way, she'll keep me awake on night shift all through the winter re-living the fight. Couldn't have asked for any more.


Pedro.

PS, blowed if I know why I'm on me side like that, wonder why all the water hasn't run away like that!

Nice fish though. Supercharged as well. Licer?:thumb:

 

[Rennie]

No, sadly she wasn't Kiestream, could see the marks where they'd been though!.But I can't and certainly won't complain in any way at all.It's fish like these just every once in a while that keep me going at it like I do, well like we all do really.
Warm rosy glow stuff!
Cheers,Pedro.

 

[Cookie-boy]

Wasn't a salmon, though a 15lb hen I had on Helmsdale that had recovered from the awful virus that had blighted that river during the early months of the season gladdened my heart. But this was my highlight, a fresh as a daisy 8lb sea trout on a little conehead on beat 4 of the A'an at Ballindalloch.

 

[mkb]

My last fish of the season and my only Welsh male of the year, a strong fish that ran and jumped energetically but returned strongly and quickly. Hope he's approaching his spawning duties with the same vigour. Roll on next season

 

[guest2938]

Sturdy brute, and great colouring.

DCH

 

[Lukasz]

They are all memorable but I let myself to pick three.

100lb tarpon on the fly in Florida Keys. Took me for an unforgettable ride. Immediately after the hook up she jumped over my fishing buddy's line and then back underneath the surface just as she knew what she was doing. By the time we got our lines untangled/cut off she went on a long run and slalomed between bridge pillars. I had to leave the boat and got picked up on the other side to be able to continue the chase. All in pitch darkness. When I eventually managed to bring the fish alongside we released her without taking the photo. I've attached my mate's fish photo instead.



Another memorable fish of this season as below. Not the largest of the trip but still decent at 84cm and icing on a cake. The take was so violent that nearly pulled the rod out of my hand. The fish took me well into backing on a first run and jumped several times. Absolutely epic.



And last but not least. My middle son, Ben, finally got his first from-start-to-finish atlantic salmon. This time Maks was the less happy chappy on the photo but in his defence he nearly went blank, loosing 5 fish in a row and saving the trip on last evening.





I know, that's four