29.5" Brown from the Watauga 1/17/2006!!!!!!!

[Maurer]

Wow, words cannot explain how awesome this trip was. *I fished with Topper and we hit the Watauga. *We had already had a good day of fishing, which turned into an awesome day of fishing and one that I will never forget. *It was rainy and windy all day long. *The stream got progressively muddier and milkier from the runoff. *Towards dusk we both went to streams and boy did it pay off. *This is the largest fish I ever ever caught period, not to mention the largest trout on a fly rod. *The big boy measured at 29.5" and had a girth of 16". *Well here's the pics. *The fish was released, but not after giving me a nasty gash in my finger while trying to remove the hook.

Very nice fish!

[D-Drake]

What an incredible fish! Congratulations!!

[Paula Begley]

Maurer - That is one handsome guy!!!!!

Yes, I am referring to the fish....

Congratulations on such a super catch!

Paula

[TOPPER]

What a killer day it was. Rain pouring and fish pulling all day long. Had several 14-16 inch bows throughout the day and then that beast at the end of the day...wow!!! I had the time of my life landing that fish I can't imagine having hooked and fought it. I must admit I freaked out when I finally saw how big it was...and then again when I finally realized that the net wouldn't work....and again when I grabed the tail. I was a mess!!! It was amazing that we didn't drop the camera!!! **** of a good fish for a **** of a good guy. I'm just glad I was there. WHAT A FISH!!!!!

Tight Lines,
Doug

aka TOPPER

[David Knapp]

Awesome! That is a great fish, good work and congratulations!

David Knapp

[Petey]

Wow... that is one bad arse brown!

Were you guys down in the trophy section? I was up there last fall and we moved some nice fish and brought a few to hand, but nothing like that. Congrats on the awesome catch.

Petey 8-)

[Sage]

Are you sure that's a brown or a small recon. submarine in disguise? Great fish!
I'm curious as to how long you fought it and what outfit you landed it on?

[Byron Begley]

Kris and Doug, NICE FISH! Good Job. Kinda looks like one of those trout pillows they sold back in the 90's or was it the 80's? Byron

[Maurer]

Rock Hopper, I landed him on a 9' 4wt T3, the fly was a white cone head zonker (you can make it out in a couple of the photos. I was kind of wishing I had a larger rod after I had hooked him. We didn't plan on throwing big streamers when we went so I only had the one rod with me. Fortunately I had a big enough leader on that I was able to horse him in fairly quickly. The fight, measuring and photos took no longer than 10 or 12 minutes. I didn't want to kill that fish so we really tried to do it as quick as possible.