Claunchy's Brown

David Sparks Ph.D.

My buddy, Christopher Claunch, never disappoints. I was sitting in the office and I got a text saying I have a story for you. Claunchy’s on my contact list, I recognized the number, so I knew this had to be good. I called him up and he was returning from a fishing trip so the reception isn’t great, but he was excited and for very good reason. “You know there are many things that are great about Idaho. I woke up this morning and went out and fished the Malad River down by Hagerman, Idaho, caught a few fish, they were small, I wanted to go after some big fish and as you know, I have been out of work, so I have really been bombed out so I decided that I was going to go up to Silver Creek. I drove up to the Peekaboo Store and there was a guy from the Silver Creek Outfitters. I walked up to him and I said if you had an hour and a half to kill, where would you go? He gave me directions to a place that had an old faded sign, I climbed the fence, went out there and there was a giant brown trout rolling around in the water and I could not figure out for the 1st hour and 15 min. what he was feeding on. So I tied on a mouse pattern, rolled it through the hole, 25 min. later I landed the biggest fish that I have ever caught in Idaho to date. 23 years of fishing here. Give me the dimensions. 25 inches long and nearly 5 pounds, maybe 5 1/2. For a brown trout? Yes. Brown trout. I don’t even know somebody who has a fishing net that big.