On this late May day, I found myself getting up early on a Wednesday morning in hopes of being able to hit the South Platte waters in suburban Littleton, CO. After checking the flows online, I knew that there would be some monster trout lurking in some of my secret holes. Thus, I went to the garage, tied on my double nymph rig (flashback pheasant tail and RS2), and set off towards my honey holes.

Although it was May, these spots at the South Platte hold some of the spookiest trout that I have ever seen, thus I still was throwing size 18-22 flies. In addition to this, 6X tippet is a necessity, and no bigger than a 5X leader can be used. Although 5X is considered to be strong, when you are dealing with 24+ inch browns and the occasional rainbow, 5X can be puppy line.

I unloaded my bike from my jeep and immediately took off to my favorite big fish spot on the entire South Platte.  The water looked perfect – a small BWO hatch seemed to be coming off, and the sun was not glaring to drastically – making it easier to sneak up on these huge trout.

So I began casting upstream and letting my double-nymph rig come down towards me. Working every seam, I was about to change spots in that I hadn’t seen or hooked any fish.  However, I kept casting in a deep riffle right along the bank (probably 5 feet off), and BOOM! A monster brown hit the flashback pheasant tail and took off downstream.

I immediately was fighting this fish on the reel, and bolted downstream in order to keep proper tension with the fish.  The fish bulldogged, flew, and jolted all in one fight – it was unusual because I find that you either have the “jumping” fish or the “dogging” fish. But, this fish had the whole package.

After a 15 minute fight or so, I finally got the fish in the net, and let out a scream that the people on the interstate nearby could probably hear.  A monster 25 inch brown was in the net – giving me a new personal best for Colorado. Being by myself, I did my best to take some pictures, and luckily for me, they turned out great.