A Lake Almanor Whopper!

On September 20th, my friend Wes Morgan, a Camp Wilson veteran fisherman, caught his fish of a lifetime!

Known to be one of the few who routinely gets on the water at 5 AM, he was jigging at Rec 2 using a 2 inch pearl pattern Berkeley Powerbait on the end of a Carolina rig.  At 7:20 a monster struck.  Fishing alone on his pontoon boat, he faced a touch and go battle for 45 minutes.  He was in only about 33 feet of water with a bottom known to be full of tree limbs and other snags.  As is typical of browns, the fish was dashing for the bottom.  Wes described many very taxing moments as the fish made long runs and threatened to spool his light tackle.  Amazingly, Wes maintained enough control to keep the fish out of the snags and certain escape. Quite an accomplishment given that he was only using 4 lb. leader.

He described how difficult it was boating the fish onto the pontoon deck by himself.  He bent over the rail and got the fish halfway into the net with the tail still hanging outside the net.  Sweating profusely, he dropped his rod, grabbed the net with both hands and heaved the fish onto the deck. I imagine it took awhile for his heart rate to drop back to normal.

The fish was 32 inches long and 18 1/2 inches in girth.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.  He's been fishing this lake since he was a kid, for 56 years. So, I'd say he's earned this trophy.

In several respects, it's been a strange year for fishing Lake Almanor.  The late close of spring seemed to have upset the ecosystem.  The hex hatch hardly even happened.  Don't know if the extended cold water killed the nymphs off or what. 

The transition of the fish from targeting scattered mayflies to pond smelt seemed delayed. When the smelt got large enough, they would drift by in thick sheets on your ff screen, but you couldn't provoke the trout to strike if your life depended on it.  I wonder if the fish are so sated with smelt that they can't be bothered by our feeble offerings. The good news, if this is indeed the case, is that the fish should be getting ever larger. That's not to say that fish aren't being caught, but the amount of time and effort per fish seems to be significantly increased.

Another unusual finding was the relative lack of seeing agonal pond smelt on the surface after they were stormed by marauding trout. Usually seeing the diving gulls sipping the carnage off the surface was a fairly common event--but not this year. I don't know if the fish have become such proficient hunters that they scarf up all the smelt, never letting them float to the surface.

Now, as the season closes, we expect to see bevies of several hundred grebs over the deeper water, tracking and diving for the swarms of smelt.  But this year they are very few to be seen.

Still, it's been a good year on the lake.  The weather has been nice, relatively warm and calm for this time of the year as we all prepare to close up and head for home.

Man, that is one huge trout!
I’d be smiling too!
Scotty

Beautiful Brown    Thanks for the report and pictures Marmite

Had to look twice to realize it was a trout - just assumed it was a northern pike or lingcod.

What a beast!

dayum!  wtg doug’s friend, beauty fish of a lifetime

Congrats catching a trophy!

HUGE trout! Great writeup too...

This beauty would look fantastic mounted on a wall.

This beauty would look fantastic mounted on a wall

Actually, Wes did take this fish to have it mounted.

I can't imagine that on 4 lb line. Such a huge trout.

Wow what a great story and fish!  Agonizing to bring in a big fish on a light setup and take your time.  Congrats to him for pulling if off!!  I'm curious about this jigging Carolina rig setup now too.  I saw some FnS slaying trout with what looked like little grubs earlier this year on top of a school of fish over and over again.

Holy cow!  Now that's a fish!!!

Great to see your post, Doug.   

What a monster! Such a neat lake. I’m hoping to get up there in the next month or so, I really enjoy that later fall time of year when most people are off the water.

Amazing fish, I'm still waiting for my stellar brown outta Almanor too.  Thanks for the post and pics!