"I have been fishing all week long over the fourth of July up at Greer with my in-laws catching all kinds of trout (Apache, rainbows, browns, and brook trout). Nothing over 14 inches though, and the majority were definitely stocked besides the brown trout. The last day in Greer I really wanted to fish the East Fork of the Black River. I’ve been there once and missed catching a monster brown that broke off my line. I knew there were big fish there and nothing is better than catching a wild trout especially with the flies you tie yourself. Anyway, I went back and was seriously killing it on brown stoneflies. I again pulled nothing in bigger than 14 inches and had one on my line that would be close to 18 inches. As I was heading back I noticed some deep pools that I could see all the way to the bottom. My guess is the water was about 5 feet deep at the most. I saw a bunch of trout I wanted to catch but kept spooking them from being to close. After spooking the few trout I saw in a deep pool I moved on to the next pool a little more cautiously and fished farther away. As I approached the next pool I could see some big fish. I first noticed a big brown (about 22 inches) and another fish that was massive (thought It was a carp). The fish literally had nowhere to hide, but I did spook it at times causing it to move from one end of the pool to the other. When it came close to me I noticed it was a brown trout and got way to excited. As I was stripping my line I accidentally fowl hook the fish in the tail but it quickly broke off since I was using 4X tippet. Pretty words didn't come out of my mouth as I thought I missed a trout of a lifetime. I then switched to 2X tippet and continued to strip my line in front of the fish and for once I got lucky and caught the fish. It took me about 15 minutes to pull him in and I must say it was a nail biter the whole time. I broke my line at the very end but was close enough to grab him! Nothing was better than seeing him jump out of the water when I hooked him. It was 25 inches,5 pounds and 6 inches wide in the middle. Nobody would believe me if I pointed out the small river where I caught it."
Enjoy the Pics. Congrats to Steve on a great fish!!
