ltlcleo -

Congrads on the fly caught fish and condolence on the loss of a pet rod.

The native rainbow trout of our rivers are spring spawners with much the same timing of our winter steelhead. In fact I would consider the two (rainbows and steelhead) to part of the same population. With the cool spring (?) much of the spawning has delayed or prolong so it would not be surprising to see more fish in spawning condition then normal for this time of year.

Where the fish of different sizes?; typically the rainbows spawn at age 4 and 14 or 15 inches with the second time spawners being in the 17 or 18 inch range. Any females? Generally I haven't seen or heard of an unusual number of Jacks this year so suspect that the "mystery" fish were indeed resident rainbow trout. Don't know where you were fishing but in recent years a number of streams have had more restrictive regulations (catch and release, selective gear restrictions, etc) which seems to have resulted in more resident rainbows in those rivers. Are there restrictive rules in place in your "canyon" river?

Tight lines
Smalma