Todays target species: Bull trout.
The river i fished has regs that state a 20" minimum size. and daily limit of 2 counted as part of trout daily limit. it is specifically listed as open in the regs and therefor legal to target bull trout.
a friend and i arrived at notellum river at about 3pm, a late start, the clouds were overcast and rain sprinkled lightly on us. we arrived at our first hole, which didnt look like much, i was already prepared with a panther martin spinner, that i modified. i took off the treble and put a single barbless brown wooley bugger on, that spinner has been a winning lure for me lately.. i couldnt quite cast far enough into the seem. my friend is still shuffling through gear. i decide to put on a 3/8 oz firetiger castmaster also modified with a single barbless hook this was the producer for me. first cast into that run with that castmaster produced the hit. i casted slightly upstream letting it sink for a couple seconds then i slowly turned the handle to let it swing out with the current, just as the lure reached the shallow area whammo, and fish on! i was using a cabelas fish eagle 50 rod in the 2-8lb line recomendation, the battle was epic and lasted several minutes, the bull put up long bulldog runs and took a long time to finally tire. finally i got the fish in, tailed it, my fishing buddy helped me tape it, 21 1/2", my first keeper bull!! it was a fairly thin fish, and would guess its weight to be 3#-3 1/2# my personal best so far. after casting for 15 minutes at that run with no more bites, we move on to the next hole, this time my friend hooks up on a cheap knock off yellow spinner, after a decent fight my friend lands and releases a 15"-16" bull, scrappy, but too small, head kept in the water and released with care. i hooked up with a 8" trout that fell off at shore, then nothing more in that whole. resolving that our first hole was well rested, we turned back to see if there was another giant lurking.. i let my friend have first cast at the run, and bam he hooks up another monster, but the battle is short lived.. the fish pops off after about 20 seconds into the fight... dang it.. we decided to head home shortly after that each catching a bull and having a good time. if you recognize this area please do not mention its name.

---