If you follow me on Instagram, I already talked about the number one fish I caught from 2019, which was a massive wild Brook Trout I caught from a tiny stream. While I have been fishing there since I was 10 years old, I hadn't been back to that stream in at least 10 year (up until last year).
I had been foraging for mushrooms and fishing for 12 hours that day, and I really didn't want to go back out. It isn't a very far trip to get to the stream, maybe 25 minutes, but it was already about 7:00pm and I just wanted to be done for the day. At best I would get an hour of fishing, and being early July, I knew my chances were low of catching much.
Yet, I decided to go out anyways. I was intoxicated with being "home" and I just couldn't stop.
It was in that context I found myself fishing in the waters of youth, under a bruised sky filled with a raging storm. The photo here is just one I took while crossing to the stream through a farmers field.
I should have known then that something special was going to happen. Yet, I'm still in awe of just how big the fish was, and how lucky I was to catch it. It was an especially moving moment for me, for a variety of reasons, and I remember having to fight back a lump in my throat. Soon enough, I won't have access to this beautiful stream any longer, and that is the topic of the article that still needs to be written.
Yet, when that day comes, I know I'll have had my shot with a true Vermont giant.
