Altamont Anglers' guide Teo Whitlock hoists a hump-backed brown with a wicked kype (click the image for a larger view)

The spawn is over, but we've left the pictures up for your viewing pleasure: the large brown to the left was caught and released on Thursday, December 6, by Altamont Anglers' guide Teo Whitlock. This big brown trout, with the classic hook-jawed kype and humped back, was in the skinny water visible in the background preparing for the "big event" of every brown trout's winter season, the annual spawn.

Properly played--which means landing the fish as quickly as possible to conserve its energy--and released after ensuring its recovery by rocking it back and forth in the current to facilitate re-oxygenation, these fish can be safely caught and released without harm to the spawning process, providing that the fish are not actively in the process of spawning, or in the post-spawn activity of protecting the eggs in their redd. Close observation of your sighted fish will ensure that you don't interrupt either of those activities, and that you are fishing in the pre-spawn period where fish are simply on the move, in search of willing mates.

Click the images below for larger views of some more December 2007 fishing on the South Holston River

Previously: 7/8/08 South Holston Report

(Altamont Anglers operates on Pisgah National Forest Rivers under USDA Forest Service Permit #PIS6560)