trout bonanza plus a question.....

[wildman]

went to a northern pothole lake yesterday in the bellyboat.
started around 10am.
as soon as i tried the very shallow areas, i hooked up!!!
and it was BIG!!!
fought this fish for over 5 mins. and brought a FAT 20.5"er to the net!!!
great start!!!! landed about a dozen over the next few hours on leech patterns.
many in less than 2 ft of water!!! too fun!!!!
then things slowed... suddenly i saw lots of rain-like drops???
looked up...no clouds???
then i saw a few right next to me ...IT WAS RAINING BACKSWIMMERS!!!!!
i quickly switched up my fly to match and all he!! broke loose!!!
i was getting hits as soon as my fly hit the water!!!
several hits per cast!!!
this lasted for a solid hour...
seriously lost count of how many i landed. 50-60 would be accurate. landed another big one that went 18".
the hilight was the one that broke my heart... i hooked, fought, and LOST the biggest trout i've seen in YEARS!!!!
had him within rod's length when he spat the fly...this thing dwarfed my net. probably well over 24". i'm still broken up about it....
all in all, fantastic day!!!!!
the fall rush is on BIG TIME!!!!!
ps. the question...
i kept a few trout for the bbq.
one i cleaned had a HUGE backswimmer beetle in his stomach!!!
this thing was a solid 1.5" and as big as my thumb!!!! SCAREY BIG!!!!
so...just how BIG do waterboatmen get???? any thoughts???
cheers, gw

[Morph1]

Nice to hear you had a great outting,
I made a mistake storing my zodiak away way too early, so whats left for me is fishing from shore.... I landed my biggest rainbow ever this fall it was just shy of 25" from Star Lake.
I thought this winter would hit early, can't believe the nice weather we've been having.
anyhow can you share what lake were you at? it wasn't Star by chance????
just curious.

Cheers!

[wildman]

hey morph.
NOT star.
about 2 hrs north.
i hear ALL potholes are seriously on fire tho.
pick a pothole, any pothole!!!

[ULTRAlite]

Great to Hear...

I sure hope it keeps up :)

[Buck Krazy]

What you found was probably a giant water bug or a great diving beetle probably not a backswimmer.

[Ggeorge]

Sounds like a june bug
big ***** bug

[Morph1]

Is the pothole starting with letter O ??:)
Were those by any chance the beetles you are talking about ?
cause the one I caught had about 10 of those in it's gut..

those were the size of a loonie or bigger.

and here is the biggest rainbow of mine so far..

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/9027/25inrainbow5zx6.jpg


http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/2323/25inrainbow2jh0.jpg

Cheers

[bearbait]

start with an e???

[buckman]

Those Beetles are definatly the North American Giant Diving Beetle

Buck