Last Tuesday Emma and I spent the day fishing with a guide on the San Juan river in northwest New Mexico. Just after we set into the river and Brian, our guide, had Emma rigged with two #20 nymphs on her 5 wt. fly rod she commented "there's a nice one". Brian and I were just yakking while he set up my rig so he told her to go ahead and cast out. You should know that we fished the Juan with Brian a year ago so we are not strangers and that Emma caught a nice 5 pounder while fishing with Brian's boss, Chris last year. While Brian and I chatted Emma shot about 20' of line out and the next thing we heard was that wonderful singing of the fly reel that means a nice fish is running like hell. 15 LONG minutes later she got her fish up to Brian and he had it in the net. This whole thing happened right at the set in point and there were about 8 guide boats with clients who had hung around to see what would happen while this cute 9 year old girl fought what was obviously a nice fish. The result (see pictures) was what Brian said was the biggest fish of the season. According to him and based on his 9 years of guiding on the river only 10% of all clients could have put this fish in the boat on the tackle we were using. I'm glad I didn't have to find out if I was in the same class. The measurements were 23.5" in length with a 15" girth. Based on the standard formula for determining the weight of a trout (girth squared x length divided by 800 ) the fish was 6.6 pounds but several guides put the weight at over 7 pounds. This was a completely unassisted catch from sight to cast to set to fight to net. (My emphasis)This girl is a scary good fisherman. I only hope she keeps taking me with her. The rest of the day wasn't bad ...we caught and released 20 fish, the smallest a 17" brown with 6 rainbows 20" or better. At least half of the total and the biggest of the day were Emma's.
This story isn't exactly My World but it sure is a great story to share with the world! (Or at least a little piece of it.)
WAY TO GO EMMA!
13 comments:
What a fabulous story, Loran! I love it! And I'm so glad you shared it with us! What a fish! Emma is adorable and she and her Dad can be really proud! I'm sure that doesn't happen that often! What fun! Love the photos!! Congratulations to them both! Have a great week!
Sylvia
wow looks delicious what a nice catch...takes me back to fishing in Nevada...those rainbow trout are always a bitin.
That Emma is a Great fishergirl. Wow! That's one big fish. She should be proud. Will she win something if it's the biggest of the season?
Wow, she seems to be a real fishing-girl. Hope she keeps up, will feed you fresh fish. this one looks great and i hope you cooked it later
Great story, Loran... Congrats to Emma!!!! That is a whopper of a fish... And ---she's only NINE????? Mercy Me!!!!
Thanks for sharing... My Daddy loved to fish --and my youngest son and his son also love to fish... Bet none of them caught one like Emma caught.
Hugs,
Betsy
Great shots and wonderful write up. That fish is really big.
What a Fisher Girl! She looks like her Daddy. Best of all, we know from the photos that her fish story is true!
Excellent!
Indeed something to be proud of.
What a great story. Emma is quite the fisher-girl!
What an impressive catch! It's almost half her size. Congratulations, Emma!
WOW! I wish I was fishing with her so she can teach me some techniques. Way to go, girl. I understand why your dad is proud of you. I am too, even if we don't know each other. :)
Thank you for sharing this. I had the pleasure of trout fishing with my uncle in Sweden and know what a thrill it is when you play and actually land a fair sized trout.
That young lady is a mean fisherwoman!
The little girl is indeed "scary good"! That's a beautiful rainbow.
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