Black Friday? Looked Brown To Me...

The infamous black Friday is here! I'm not one for big crowds but my wife seems to enjoy the gauntlet. She left the house at 4:30 am with some friends and I got my gear together and set out on another adventure to the Weber. I met up with my friend Joe who taught me how to fish this river last fall. We arrived to the river with perfect fishing conditions. OK, to be honest, there was almost a foot of snow and the temperature was -3 degrees when we started out. There's just something about breaking the ice out of your eyelets after every cast and having your reel freeze up that just adds to the fun, right? Despite the bitter cold we ended up having a pretty good day of fishing. I caught a smaller 14 inch brown on my first cast and then nothing for any of us for the next hour or so. I then hooked the biggest cutthroat I've ever seen on the Weber! It typically would have been easy to land but there was ice I had to steer him around. I got really excited as I worked him around the ice and he was all but landed. I get him within reach and the trout gave me one more hard head shake and off came my jig! AHHHH!!!! I was so close! That was my day in a nutshell. Not only did the cutt get away, but the biggest brown I landed today slipped out of my hands and swam away as I was getting the snow off him before I could get a picture. It had a lot of color and would have made a great picture.
Joe on the other hand started out really slow and ended the day with some real beauties. He landed some of the nicer looking browns I've seen. They ranged from 20-23 inches and were thick! All-in-all, it was another successful trip and I'm happy to say that I finally have all the feeling back in my hands!

Joe's first and biggest catch of the day.

Typical brown trout from the Weber.

Joe lands another brute!