** This post is from contributing author, Pat Burke. **

Today was a day where all my plans backfired. I originally looked to explore some new water on our favorite big trout river.  I was somewhat behind where I needed to be to meet a milestone at work. So I had to go in this morning to get caught up. That ruined those plans. Then I decided to go to a new section of a relatively unknown river closer to home. The closest parking area to this spot is a long ways from the river. I arrived and hiked the 10 minutes in to the river just to find it a muddy mess. On to plan C…

I reached my third choice destination and begin gearing up.  It turns out I forgot my 5 weight helios.  So far nothing was falling in to place with this outing!  I’ve gotten some big fish out of this river before and really would have liked to have had a heavier rod. All I had was my 4 weight Access that I was using the day before with the kids at the paradise.

The water here was also off color from the recent rains so I started fishing with the pink squirmy worm.  I fished the numerous runs and riffles and got into many healthy wild browns right away.  Many of the fish were in 10-12 inch range.  Very fun.

I then switched over to dead drifting small streamers and started finding big fish in the holes.

Then I hooked into a beast!  This fish fought HARD, alternating between hugging the bottom and  bulldogging towards fallen trees.  Throughout the battle my 4 weight was bent to the max.  Man I was missing my 5 weight right about now!  After a long battle, I finally got a net on him.  This girth on this fish rivaled any other fish I’ve caught over the years.   He was one mean SOB.  Even as I took pictures he fought back and constantly threw himself around. I could not coral him. I was having major issues trying to tape him because he kept tail slapping my arm. He had a big hooked jaw and he had attitude. I think snaggletooth is a fitting name.