big fall brown trout

Hi Folks, Guided a fine fly angler on a Lamoille tributary for the day yesterday.  This particular stream has always had a decent population of wild brown trout with a mix of wild rainbows and native brook trout.  the state does stock some browns, but we did not see any of them.  Water levels are all still up in our streams and where we fished yesterday was probably 3 times the average flow for this time of the year.  We carried two fly rods, 1 rigged with a dry dropper and 1 with a double nymph and indicator rig.  The dry dropper rig produced the most fish for the day.  A #14 yellow foam spider fly I tie with a #18 copper john nymph as a dropper.  The first fish of the day was a small wild rainbow on the nymph and then shortly thereafter we hooked and landed a measured 17" male brown trout.  Probably weighed about 3lbs.  Big hook jaw with lovely cherry dots on its flanks.  The fish really put up a tussle and hung in the pocket water making landing it a good challenge.  The slower action 3wt. my client was using made things even more difficult.  However, I did get it in the net and man was it fun.  We did land another 15" plus brown on the dry fly.  Landed 3 other large brown trout on the nymph under the dry and missed god size fish on the dry as well.  All of the trout were holding in the tail outs of pools.  Casting upstream was important in order to catch these fish.  We found wild bows in the head of the the pools  in some of the rough and tumble pockets behind big boulders.  The brown trout were not on beds and every male was pretty plump.  Did not catch a female brown.  These fall fish are impressive looking with their hook jaws, big eyeballs, beautiful colors.  Good day of fishing under cloudy damp skies.  Still catching fish in October and it should remain decent for awhile.  Off to do it again today.  Remember to clean you gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy