If you’ve been paying attention to our weekly runoff updates, looking at many of our freestones hydrographs, or out on the water, you know that it’s big water season. With that big water, comes some of the best fishing of the year. Fish tight to the banks and big fish getting comfortable with a little more cover and a lot more food to had. With that in mind, I wanted to write a quick ode to one essential piece of gear that I never leave home without this time of year.

Let me set the stage a little bit. Imagine the following. You’re fishing a local tailwater. The river is bankfull. You’re nymphing a nymph, stonefly, and worm all on 3 or 4x tippet. Working the edges and the soft water, you’ve caught several solid fish and are having a great day on the water. You cast upstream into a great seam and your flies drift slowly downstream...tantalizingly slow. Your indicator pauses, then dives under the surface. You set the hook and your line comes tight. The heavy headshake let’s you know, this fish is different than the others. It’s big. The fish breaches the surface, it’s a sizeable brown trout. The brown jumps. A little bit of panic creeps into the back of your mind...you don’t want to lose this fish. You look upstream and downstream for optimal water to land a fish. You spot a couple of short pockets of soft water are located just downstream 40 yards of you. The fish starts it’s big run downstream, peeling some line from your reel. You apply side pressure and work down towards one of those small pockets of soft water. The brown relents and settles into the soft water. You grab for your landing net and scoop the brown. Day made. Week made. Month made. Year made. It’s the fish you’ve been after.

That series of events ends differently in you don’t have your trusty landing net. Landing nets are key this time of year. It has to be in the truck before I leave for the water. High water might only give you a small window to land your fish of the year, so make sure you are prepared appropriately. Shop for your next LANDING NET here, including the new Fishpond Nomad Native net.