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Official TOO Catch Thread

I got drawn in the Castalia trout lottery this year, and last Thursday was my assigned date. If you've never done it, the lottery application is open for the month of March and it's only $3 to get your name in the hat. If you're drawn, they assign you a date/time. All catch and kill, no releasing of fish. Catch your five and you're finished. You can take 2 more adults with you and up to 3 kids. I was bummed 1) my son wasn't drawn this year and 2) my date was a week day and his school absence request was denied by mommy. So, me and two buddies went.

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The hard part is not catching smaller ones. It's ridiculously easy fishing, and I used barbless hooks. If a small trout ate and I saw it, don't set the hook and usually the fish will spit the fly. The only time a small one couldn't spit the fly, for me, was the first fish of the day.

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After that smaller one, I was able to target the bigger fish and not make mistakes.

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The brown was really long but skinny. I didn't care much because I was hoping to get one decent brown trout.

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We came to the last hole and I needed one more fish. There was a TANK brown trout that followed my fly a few times but wouldn't eat. I turned my attention towards the tank rainbow a ways below him. He played ball.

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I got to use my priest I made earlier this year to deliver last rites. The other fish really aren't small, but next to that 7-8lb non-sinker aided 24 1/4" pig, they look small.

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I grew up right next to there and snuck in there as a teenager quite a few times, it was privately owned back then
 
Go fishing in late December, they said. It'll be fun, they said.

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The fishing was rough. I found a few willing to play, but it was one of the rougher WV trips I have ever taken. Air temp when I got there at daybreak was 16 degrees, according to my car.

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The small stream fish were especially fussy.

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Sculpin pattern I tied for the trip.

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Success.

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I spent the weekend down in the Volunteer state chasing trout. No giants were caught but a lot of fish came to the net.

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We did do some night mousing, and I had several blowups but only one hookup, and that fish popped off before I could net it. My buddy caught two smaller trout on mice the second night. I even had a stinger hook in mine but my hooking percentage was still about 0.48%.

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If you're ever in Elizabethton, hit up Jiggy Rays for pizza, beer, and live music.

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The small stream fishing was awesome yesterday before we left. Caught too many to count. Me dumb with numbers.

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