A blizzard of hatches and high flows made for awesome fishing on the Pan. The Green Drakes were on the water as well as PMDs and the mysis were pouring out of the dam. We started fishing the Toilet Bowl on first day and caught a lot of nice fish. We ended up fishing 6x tippet for most of the morning and afternoon, having the best luck with smaller mysis. Fishing picked up around noon when the big rainbows moved in. I hooked up with one really nice fish and after taking me into my backing twice, I finally got a glimpse of the monster. It was a huge fish and I knew that if I could get it in it would be by far my largest rainbow ever. I managed to get it up to the surface a couple of times, but not ever long enough to get a net under it. It managed to get out into the current and take off downstream. I chased the fish down the river with the net in one hand and my rod in the other. Finally, the fish tired and I caught up to it. After swimming through my legs and a making one last run, I got it in the net. I breathed one huge sigh of relief and couldn’t believe the size of the fish.

We measured it as 30 ½ inches, with a 19 inch girth. We guessed it probably weighed close to 13 pounds, easily bigger then the 10 pounder I landed last summer. On my third cast after returning to the TB, I hooked another huge fish close to 10 pounds that broke me off after two huge leaps out of the water. Its pretty amazing to see a fish of that size get completely out of the water, but it definitely didn’t want anything to do with me. The next cast I hooked into another large bow, which also leapt out of the water and took me into my backing. I managed to turn it out of the back chute, but it took off downstream. I chased it down into the flat water and had the fish in the net, but it swam outand took off again. I made another attempt to net the fish, this time knocking my hook out. I quickly threw the net under water and was able to come up with the fish before it took off downstream on me again. It was a beautiful 27 inch rainbow, with bright red sides. It was one of the prettiest fish I have ever caught. We fished the rest of the afternoon, catching mostly 18-22 inch browns, with an occasional 20 inch rainbow.