Fish of a Lifetime

Its not often you get a chance to hook a fish this size. I reckon this was the largest brown trout I have hooked and landed in Ireland, I estimate its length to be over 24 inches, so it is hard to determine the approx weight, but it was a big fish! Shane, Kevin and I were fishing the Nire, the river was up a little with the rain. We already had a few nice fish between 12 and 14 inches and a few smaller ones mixed in.  I have seen some large fish in the river before but they are rarely caught.  Shane had fished the spot before and had seen a big fish in there.  I had a few casts with the streamer ( a large woolly bugger) and nothing hit. I slowed the retrieve to allow the streamer to sink, then bam the fish hit! You can see the landing and releasing of the fish below.. [gallery ids="2895,2896"]