Chattahoochee Morning
Spent some time hitting the Chattahoochee a few weeks back with a friend of mine for his first time fly fishing. He caught a Brown on a big ugly dry! That was definitely the highlight of the morning for us both. I caught a few fish as well, and one of the rainbows I caught had previously ingested a large, soft plastic, bass worm on a hook and a swivel. When I pulled this fish into my net, I noticed several yards of 25+lb mono hanging out of it's mouth, and the accompanying hardware (big brass swivels), as well as a bass worm and hook starting to poke out the anus of the fish as it was being passed.
I just don't understand:
- why someone would think that level of gear is required on this section of river (namely because there aren't but a few bass in the whole section!)
- why someone would be fishing for bass on this section of the river in the first place
- how did they break off that high-pound test?!
I imagine it played out like this.
Someone was fishing for bass (for some apparent reason) and got hung on the bottom. They weren't able to break their line by pulling on it (because it was 25+lb mono), so they cut it at their reel using a knife or clippers.
This left all the line in the water, which is why I found so much. First no-no...always try to break off your line by pulling it! Don't cut it at your reel/rod tip! This way it atleast has a chance of breaking off right at the hook, leaving all that line to be reeled back to you and not left out in nature.
At some point, a curious rainbow trout came along, and seeing the tail of the bass worm fluttering on the bottom, decided it looked tasty. After gulping up the whole worm, it then faced an issue unbeknownst to him. It was going to need to pass:
- a huge bass hook
- about 20 yards of thick mono
- and a large brass barrel swivel
...through it's entire body and out the other end!
I come along and catch this same fish on my microbugger and find it with the hook and worm partially digested (i.e. black with poop, but still all in one piece) starting to come out the anus of the fish. Of the line hanging out of the fishes mouth, I cut off the brass swivel and as much line as I could. I then proceeded to gently pull the worm and hook the rest of the way out of the anus of the fish. The belly basically collapsed and all this backed up poop came out with it. You can see the blackened worm in my hand in the video. Pretty gross stuff, and also really sad that an angler contributed to this crappy situation which was uncomfortable at the least for our wildlife*. Thankfully the trout swam off happily after the operation!
Hope you enjoy the video!
*Term used loosely as this fish was a stocker. Still, it's a living thing, and it should be respected at least until being killed for the frying pan.