Huey… Well, that’s what I call him. He’s our resort “mascot”. The first time we got a good look at Huey was one day early in the spring, while XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sorry, I’m not allowed to tell where he was…)
As we watched several Rainbows in the water, all of a sudden a big dark shadow came into the group at an incredible rate of speed…
Bam! Huey hit one of the rainbows from the side, ramming it so hard it stunned the fish (probably broke it’s back) and then just as quickly gulped it down whole. My husband said, “Did you see that? About that time Huey had already taken his next victim, and the other fish were dispersing as quickly as they could go.
Being done with his afternoon lunch, Huey casually swam back out of sight. We estimate Huey to be about 20-25 lbs. Yes, I know, there are bigger browns in the river, but nonetheless – Huey is a downright respectable fish!
Since then, we’ve seen Huey from time to time. My husband hooked him once, not too far from XXXXXXXXXXXXXX. This lasted all of about 10 seconds before Huey broke him off and said, “Bye-Bye, Steve – better luck next time.”
About a month later, we had some guests in Unit #7 who had him on for all of maybe 30 seconds. Hooked into him about the same place my husband had. According to them, Huey swam right for the boat and jumped out of the water as he spit the hook out of his mouth.
One of them said, “As he jumped, he looked straight at me – like – “Not today, buddy”, waved his fin, and spit that hook right at my face”. (OK, OK, so, we all know that’s probably a little bit of an exaggeration – but after all, this IS a fishing story!)
My husband hooked into Huey again not too long ago… Huey took off straight across the river, sideways to the current at 8 generators, and according to my husband made it clear across the river in less than 5 seconds, at which time Huey broke him off without delay. Steve said smoke was coming out of his reel… Sometimes at night, I hear my husband talking in his sleep, “I’m gonna get you, Huey”.
Huey made another victim out of one of our guests… Claims he had Huey on for 15 minutes!!! Some of our other guests in #4 had a rental boat out too, and saw him fighting with this fish. He had been trying to run the boat and get this fish in for about 15 minutes when our other guests tried to come to his assistance. About that time, Huey swam straight up the river at 8 generators, pulled the last of the line out of the guest’s reel and broke him off – eluding capture once again.
That same evening, our guest was still rather traumatized by the whole experience. It had been several hours since the event when he told me the story. His voice was still shaky, he trembled occasionally, and his eyes were open way too wide for as late in the evening as it was… Huey does seem to have that effect on people…
Huey’s still out there… Maybe you’ll be the one…