Once in a blue moon you show up to a river, the stars align, and everything just falls into place. A few weeks ago Maria Chachas Mastakas and her father Greg were on a guided trip on the C section of the Green River and hit one such day.
Fishing with big dry flies all morning, we had typical C section success - a couple of nice fish missed, a couple of nice fish landed . Around mid day intermittent gusts of strong wind started blowing Mormon Crickets and large Grasshoppers into the river. These giant floating "cheeseburgers" provoked large trout into an extremely aggressive feeding pattern.
Great drifts, impeccable timing, and lots of Mojo brought several brown trout in the 19 to 21 inch range to the boat. As a fishing guide the day was made. Another perfect drift, another great fish, we could do no wrong. An hour or so later a larger head pops up for the dry, Maria sticks the fish and 5 or so minutes later is holding a 24" brown! The largest fish that had graced my net all season. Ecstatic at this point, I casually mention that some of our clients had recently landed huge trout with guides Dudley Campbell and Charlie Card in the vicinity. A few drifts later, an alligator mouth comes up from a mid river foam line and devours Maria's fly. She hooks the fish, and I tell her that the fish she has on is waay bigger than the 24" trout that she just landed. Her 9 foot 5 weight Sage SP ( a soft rod) is bent over as the trout rushes up and across the river. The adrenaline is cranking at this point as I proceed to row as hard as I can to stay close to the fish. Maria did an amazing job of keeping her rod tip up during the multiple surges the behemoth delivered. After about 20 minutes of fighting the fish, and 1/4 mile of river distance covered, it was time to make a stand. We had yet to see the fish more than 5 feet from the surface. Fortunately we were using 12 pound test line to turn over the huge dry fly on the end of her line. I anchored the boat in shallow water and I jumped into the river, net in hand. Maria swung the fish near me a few times and I tried to capture the beast. On my first netting attempt I realized how fat and long the fish was when I couldn't fit it into the 22" long opening in the net. Maria's arm was very sore at this point, but she was full of fight and determined to win this battle. One more cautious attempt by me to land the fish failed. It was frustrating and exhilarating all at the same time. A couple of minutes later Maria gave the fish another swing towards me, net held at a wider angle and WOW!!!
I have never held a fish like it before, heavy, powerful, majestic, and capable of eating a 12" trout in 1 swoop. It was amazing!!! We snapped a few quick pictures for proof, and then I had Maria jump into the river to hoist her trophy . A couple of minutes of underwater breathing for the fish, and then a quick measurement on the rear deck of my drift boat - the cooler was too small. 31" long and 10 or so pounds on a dry fly! We released the fish in the swiftest water around and it swam off smooth and steady - just like it fought.
Maria and Greg nicknamed the fish "the Ganuba". A fitting, and unique name for a once in a lifetime fish. Congratulations and thanks again Maria!
