The Ranch, First Day
Well, “The Ranch,” short for BarZX Ranch, has to be one the most unique environments on this little planet. I know, I know, every fisherman has his secret hole where there are monsters lurking in the depths. One of the coolest things about The Ranch is that there are twenty-six holes (ponds) with monster fish galore. Until I visited The Ranch, I could note have imagined the abundance of huge, fresh water trout that live in Dean’s utopia.
The fish Lincoln and I have caught at Dean’s place have been dreams come true. I had before only seen pictures of trophy specimens like these, and it seemed that those, “Big Guys,” were few and far between and always in some exotic place, half-way around the world.
My first day on The Ranch was mind blowing! And, it got better after that.
Lincoln, in his usual understated manner, downplayed the possibilities as I kept asking; “Are their really huge trout in these dinky ponds? I know, I saw some pictures but were those taken like thirty years ago? Am I actually going to have a chance to fish for one of those huge fish? How often do people actually catch the really big ones?” Etc., etc.
On the ride up to The Ranch I wouldn’t shut up. Lincoln tolerated me, and would just make that little smile of his and say, “We’ll see.”
That first day I caught dozens of fish weighing five pounds or better. In my past experience, I had caught only a few trout that big in my lifetime.
At midday, while fishing a beautiful pond called White Wolf, I landed a humungous Brown. We guessed twelve pounds. I was jubilant, to say the least. For the rest of the day, I kept looking in my phone at the pictures of this trophy fish. I had never seen myself holding a trout of this magnitude. I kept saying, “Lincoln, this is a fish of a lifetime. I cannot believe this actually happened.”
Lincoln would chuckle. A few times he replied with, “There might be some bigger ones.”
On the last pond of the day we battled and landed a gorgeous sixteen pound Cutbow. WOW! I was flabbergasted.
I told Lincoln that I was through fishing for the day. He said, “But there’s a couple of more hours and ponds we can hit.”
“No way, I can’t handle it, I am emotionally spent.”
I will never be able thank Lincoln Neiley enough for making dreams come to life for me. He is a masterful fisherman and swell companion. Lincoln and I have since caught numerous Big Guys together at The Ranch.
Dean Lampton, … my goodness. He has dedicated his life to building the most incredible habitat for us fisherman of the fly. Dean deserves a Nobel Fish Prize. Ha!
… Jim Stinnett