It's not my story really, but I play a role. Very good friend (now passed on) was a fly fishing fanatic, and took me under his wing and taught me to fly fish (early 80s). When he thought I was ready, we went to the Little Smokey and spent a day catching hundreds of grayling. Late afternoon we got back to my car at one of the bridges on the Kaybob gas plant road. He had told me he only ever fly fished. So I pulled out my spinning rod to demonstrate my method, put a cast under the bridge, and hooked into a 12 pound northern. My buddy was impressed, and told me that he and his brothers and father regularly go to southern BC (I think it was on the Skookumchuk?) a fly fish for trout at their "secret spot". He said fishing was amazing, but that they lost a lot of trout to the very large bull trout that would often rise off the bottom and nail their hooked fish. With their light leaders, it was a very short fight. He said they tried for years to get the bull trout to bite on a fly, but they never would.
I gave him my spinning gear with 12 pound monofilament, and Rebel rainbow trout pattern floating plug, very similar to the standard Rapala. They went as planned, and a week later returned, minus my lure. My friend was glassy eyed as he told me that the moment the bulls started to hit their trout, he switched to my spinning rig. The first one he hooked into he said was close to 20 pounds based on ones he caught later. He had it on for almost an hour, and then it threw the lure. Over the next three days, he told me hooked about 10 bull trout, and landed half of them. The biggest he landed was 16 pounds! He lost the lure on the last fish. He had never before fought a fish over 5 pounds, and was amazed at the experience. His family almost rejected him for giving up the hallowed flyrod, but were grateful he dealt with the bull trout. He told me that he was almost ready to expand his fishing horizons, but needed to think about it. Sadly, a few months later, he had an MS attack that laid him out, and put him in a wheelchair. He never fished again.
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