My buddy Chien Goh and I have fished a couple times over the last 2 years. He was always teasing me with the story of a 28 inch plus brown he caught last year. We fished together this spring and he stung a huge fish in the exact same place he caught the 28 inch plus fish.
After fishing we talked and I gave him a couple pointers on where to fish. I had been with a shocking crew about 18 years ago and was astounded by the trout we shocked out of this one stretch. I recommended to him to go there. Chien is a diligent angler and asked permission on the stretch I suggested and the water above and below where I told him to fish. Small stream wisconsin.
The first time Chien fished that stretch he told me he had a 30 inch brown nearly to net and it made one more power run and got off.
When I came home from fishing yesterday these photos were in my inbox.
I looked at the first photo above and wasn’t terribly impressed until I saw fly in the photo below and then I compared fly to the fish.
a #2 streamer hook fly Goh tied to imitate a baby brown trout.
These are excerpts from emails Chien sent me:
I couldn’t get an exact measurement of the fish as she wouldn’t hold still and I could not get her into the net. And yes, I think I am getting a bigger net….you’re right about big nets! I tried three times to measure her and got three different measurements .
She actually straightened her back and got out of the net on my two failed attempts.
I have been told that fish that size are near the end of the line, but they’re such incredible animals! So far, I’ve hooked and seen three really monstrous fish landing just two. Of those three fish, the last two I’ve encountered were peculiar. All three were females, but the one I lost looked like an absolute football and was just immense. The
one I just landed was skinny.
I tried three times to measure her and got three different measurements from 30.5 to 32 inches depending on how she was squirming
