Spawning Browns on the Bear River

Fishing Time:  9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Weather:  partly cloudy, breezy, T-50s

Moon Phase: 97% Moon

Location:  Bear River

Bait: Glow bugs, jig head with worm

Who Went: Bobber John, Rick, Me

It’s spawning time on the Bear River and we made it just in time to catch the tail end of it.  We found beds all over the river, but most of them were already vacated.  However, we did find a few beds that still held some nice fish including the biggest brown I’ve seen on the river yet.  Rick and I used fly rods throwing the old faithful pale orange glow bug and bobber used a spinning rod throwing an orange jig head tipped with a crawler.  Both worked well when we found fish.

I was first on the board after Rick found two fish and directed my casting and told me when to set the hook.  It was a very nice male with beautiful colors and a huge hooked jaw!  It was gorgeous.

Bobber was second to land a really nice fat female floating the jig tipped with worm right through her spawning bed.  The fish here are absolutely amazing.

Rick got on the board with an extremely long cast and hook set that I should have film of, but of course it was about the only cast he made all day that I wasn’t filming.  Go figure.

The last and best spot we found held multiple fish including an absolute monster that we all dreamed of catching.  We threw to him many times to no avail and then moved up river for a bit to give him a rest, but before we left I took some film.  

We came back about an hour later and the big fish continued to ignore everything we threw at him. I casted to him for about a half hour straight to end the day and was basically practicing my casting at this point when Rick yelled at me to set the hook.  Sure enough I had him on the end of my line and Rick jumped down from the bank to help me land him.  I was able to get him right up near shore, but he was a long way from being exhausted and took a very hard run to deeper water.  My amateur fly fishing skills had me fumbling with extra line and trying to control the drag with my fingers. I put a little too much tension on the fish and snap! Gone!  I was devastated.  This was a fish of a lifetime.  It was a heart breaker for sure, but that’s the life of a fisherman.  It’s very tough to land fish of that size on a fly rod with light line.  Either way it was another great and successful day on the Bear River for spawning browns.