Tim, Great story. Thanks for sharing.
We had a similar experience here in Central Oregon a few weeks ago. My father was fishing a streamer pattern behind his place on the Fall River (a crystal clear spring creek) when he hooked a small Rainbow Trout. As he brought it in a huge Brown Trout (several pounds) that we had previously nicknamed "Ralph" shot up from the bottom of the stream, took the Rainbow, and broke the line, all in about 2-3 seconds. My dad couldn't stop talking about it for days.
The Rainbow, Brook, and Browns are always stacked up together in this particular hole, and the water is so clear that we can see them finning back and forth, with the Browns lurking at the bottom near a log. This was an excellent example of triggering a predatory response, as Ralph and his buddies are always swimming a few feet below dozens of small Rainbows and brookies. We had never seen them make a move until one of the smaller fish was hooked and started to struggle.
The river is restricted to flyfising w/ barbless hooks and no weights. We have been working on bringing Ralph up for a visit, but no success yet.
P.S. I am currently pondless (hoping to change this), but love the site and enjoy seeing other people's success stories.
