The “Ego Wall” the brown trout from this story is on the lower right.
In my duplex I have recently added what I like to call my “ego wall”. On it, I can re-live some of the best moments of my life. On the ego wall you can find my euro mounted elk skull among a half dozen or more photos of the moments that I dream for. The best photos are credited to my girlfriend Emma, without her I would have to rely on my own memory.
The ego wall is a piece of personal history, I wish I were the only one to see it but that is not the case. Instead I broadcast my accomplishments to everyone who comes into my home. Fuck it, I have decided it brings me enough joy to cancel out the obvious criticisms it may bring.
Last night we had a potluck and a new friend came over, it seems so far that my ego wall may in fact be a good conversation starter. He was asking me about where I caught all of the browns, and struck his interest when I told him about the one I pulled out of the Animas River here behind my house. The large browns in the Animas are the center of attention with local anglers. The idea is to spend a day on the river tossing streamers and fishing through the little stocker rainbows in hopes of snagging a big brown in the mouth. Some people fish a large enough streamer that small fish aren’t a problem, but my streamer patterns seem to produce well for me even in their small size. I have had some success with large sculpin, which are considered to be the fly pattern of choice here on the local streamside.
One of my sculpin fly patterns for the Animas River
When the brown trout spawn in the fall, a few nice fish will move right behind my house. I can check on the progress of the spawn on my morning dog walks which take me along the bridge that crosses the river. There was a nice trout lying in the same spot three days ago as there was a year ago almost to date.
Every once in awhile I will get caught by passersby as I am fishing in my backyard and I might find another fisherman in an otherwise empty hole in the days or weeks to follow. Otherwise the Animas doesn’t really see that much pressure. I like to fish above the golden water section, away from the highway and other fisherman. I find myself fishing more alongside spin casters with worms, but I always seem to do better in this section.
On this special day I was fishing a streamer pitching down and across, jigging the tip of my rod until I got to the end of the swing and then I would strip the line. I usually start with a fast strip to cover water, but if that doesn’t produce I take it down to a painfully slow pace. As I was about to give up and my faithful camera-woman was getting tired, I hooked into this beautiful brown trout, which now hangs on my ego wall.
Animas River Brown Trout
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