July 2013 my mail carrier, Jim Gainor, gave me a tip on a big trout he had a follow on in Richland Center.
I stored it in my memory for another day. That another day was Friday morning, Sept. 30 at first light.
I was accompanied by a friend, Joe Chadwick. He was tossing worms while I was spinning the area. He let me have the top of the hole. This is where the mailman had rolled a big trout.
Chadwick picked the deeper run just in front of the bridge.
It was a short outing.
Chadwick was yelling for me to come help within two minutes of getting to the Pine River right in town. I waded out quite a ways and waited for him to tire out the fish. This fish was big and hunkered down to the bottom. I was making fun of Chadwick for being so excited.
I can remember picking on him and saying it was only some stupid carp anyway and he shouldn't get so worked up. It finally surfaced and then I got excited. I waded out further almost to the top of my waders because this trout was absolutely huge.
The battle went on for what seemed forever. The trout was strong and any time it saw the net it made another powerful run. A couple walking by on the bridge stopped and I could hear them yelling and cheering. This only made us nervous.
Finally the trout tired out and I netted it. It almost didn't fit in the net. Luckily I had my huge LDH net.
The couple on the bridge applauded us and came down to admire the female brown.
She measured 31 5/8 inches. This makes four small-stream trout over 30 inches that Chadwick has caught. I got an assist again. He is having it mounted on the same driftwood as his last 30-inch small-stream brown.
The picture has been out locally and it is amazing the myriad responses. The majority of responses are positive. Most people just say 'wow.'
There are a few jealous types that try to dismiss it as a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources-released brooder or someone's pet that escaped from their pond. Those are to be expected when an angler catches the biggest Wisconsin small stream brown I have heard of or seen caught in my lifetime.