The Big Fall Trout That Got Away

The title of this post is a but misleading as the trout in question would have "gotten away" no matter what seeing as how I don't kill any of the trout that I catch, but nonetheless this large rainbow released itself before I had the chance to land, admire, and release it.  In any case, as I mentioned in the last post I was having a good afternoon on the water, catching and releasing multiple rainbow trout that ranged in size from 9 to about 15 or so inches.

Now I'm not sure if it was because the fishing trip was going so well or because of the fact that I'm really out of practice and don't get to spend nearly as much time on the water as I'm used to, but I neglected to do many of the things that I normally do when fishing for fall trout.  One of those things is always checking my gang hooks (particularly the leader) for wear and tear each time that a trout is caught and released. 

It had been 10 minutes or so since my last bite and I had worked my way 20 or so yards downstream when during a very nice drift, I felt the familiar 'pull' from what is often a good sized fish.  I quickly set the hook and immediately felt the weight on the end of my line.  I raised my arm high in the air, making sure to not give the fish any slack, as I stepped backward towards the edge of the river.  Almost immediately the fish jumped completely out of the water.  When the trout landed back into the water it sounded like someone threw a cinder block into the water.

I was a bit shaken, haven not felt a rainbow of this size on the end of my line for more than two years, but at that point it didn't matter because the fight was on.  Although the trout was 20 or so feet away when it jumped, I could tell that it was 20 plus inches long, and as wide a rainbow as I have ever come across on this particular river. The fish then peeled off a bunch of line and towards the bottom of the river.  It then began to slowly shake it's head (as large troiut tend to do), before bolting towards the surface of the river once again. 

This time rather than jump the trophy sized rainbow trout opted to shake it's head on the surface and when it did, snap, it was gone.  That's right, the massive rainbow broke my line, something that rarely happens.  Unless of course you don't visually inspect your gang hooks when you bait up to make sure that there are no nicks or other wear and tear on the leader, which I had failed to do on this day.  There is no doubt that this is the reason that the large trout got away, but in truth is that as rusty as I am, I'm not sure would have had a hard time landing a rainbow of this size by myself in any case?