A recent trip with a “top guy” client Eric into a remote Canterbury stream resulted in quite a lot of exciting close quarters fishing action including the capture of a very memorable fish for my client. Unless fishing during a mouse year or in a sea run environment, it is generally getting harder to find large trophy (10lb+) fish these days. I personally haven’t landed a trophy in several years now, despite being pretty close on a few occasions. On this particular day we had a big drive from Christchurch to reach our chosen destination. A reasonable walk at the beginning of the day was required before we started to spot the various pools where I had seen trout on previous trips. Early signs were not too flash as we were not spotting much but eventually we came across some occupied water. The first few encountered fish were hooked or took the fly, but a series of bad luck resulted in all fish being lost. We continued upstream and had a few more opportunities, but it wasn’t until we reached a regularly productive pool that my client finally landed his first fish for the day. This cracker fish was in absolutely brilliant condition being only the length of an average 3lber but weighed over 5lbs. However this fish was not he largest fish in the pool and our focus now shifted to target the big brown on the far side of the pool. Several fly changes and a different approach were required to finally hook the monster. A strong fight where the trout utilised his weight for much of the time led to some anxious moments, as he tried to exit the pool into faster water multiple times. Luckily we were finally able to subdue the gorgeous giant and were both stoked to see the scales drop to just over 10lbs. Magic! Our attempts to take the perfect photo didn’t go quite to plan as the still energetic fish bolted from the grasps of my client on our second quick attempt to take a photo. The accompanying photo doesn’t really do this fish justice as it had a large solid humped back, and was in fantastic condition and Eric is a tall guy. Well Done Eric!! We were both stoked but understandably I was a little envious (in a nice way) that I wasn’t the one to have caught this gorgeous fish. I think I will have to give myself a little time to build the novelty to visit this location again and have a go at catching this trophy myself. Stay tuned for hopefully a positive blog about this in the future.