Big Fish Day On The Blue 04Sep14

On my first outing on the Blue River tailwater in Silverthorne this year I was fortunate to land a gigantic 21" (maybe longer) ultra-chubber rainbow. Sweet. She jumped 3 times right in front of me and shook furiously above and below water but didn't come off. She then took off downstream like a rocket... I got her onto the reel and loosened the drag as I ran downstream with her. She hung out for bit ~200 feet from original catch-point and then took off again upstream almost as fast and I was dancing on the rocks. She nestled multiple times on the far bank rock cover but I kept decent pressure on so as to not allow a rock scraping line escape. Ultimately she tired (good thing as so was I) and I was able to get her nose up. I took the pics quickly since she was exhausted - reviving her took another 5 minutes in direct flow and I was glad when she made a mighty jerk and my hand flew off her tail. I could not get her entirely into the frame as my arms weren't long enough and the pano didn't really work at this proximity.This is probably my best fish of the year so far though there are contenders from the PT. I caught some other stuff including small browns and other decent rainbows. I hit the water after a full morning of work and some repair work out at the boat. I went 4 for 5 over the 2.5 late afternoon hours on the river. I caught ever fish but one on a mercury head, flashback, black wire-wrapped midge; one was on a mysis. I caught Lucy right in my favorite hole pretty far up the Blue across from the ball field on an overcast day spitting rain. Woohoo.