... to the brown trout.

[Background: each year, my Dad and I take a fly-fishing trip somewhere "off the grid". This year, it was southwest Montana. Our collective goals are to catch up and enjoy time together, experience the great outdoors, and get a little fishing in too (pretty much in that order). This year's trip was remarkable in that we caught (and released) a ton of incredible fish. And, I caught this one. Fish of a lifetime. I nearly placed a craigslist ad for all of my fishing gear before I even got home as this is...well... as good as it gets and will not likely happen again.]

For the fishing bums out there, here are the "technical details":

• fish: wild brown trout, 26+ inches, easily over 6 pounds.
• rig: caught on a #10 prince nymph dropper about 16 inches behind a #16 PMD. Tippet: 6x / 9 foot (~3.8lbs test)
• rod: Sage SPL 589 (5-weight, 8' 9") with Sage 3300 large arbor reel and Sage Quiet taper floating line (and yes - this fish took me waaaaaaay into the backing with about 20+ minutes getting it to the net...)

I'm pleased to report that he's happily swimming somewhere in the same river right now. ;-)