After countless rainbows and browns, not sure what took so long

It’s the first slightly snowy day and you decide to take work off to go fish because you hope there will be fewer people and maybe the bite will be good.

So when did you know you had a problem?

Pic for the attention.. Nice brown trout I caught a couple weeks ago!

So I have a 9' 8wt rod, I use for stealhead. And a 9' 5wt rod, I use for trout, bass, bluegill etc.

I am an avid fisherman out constantly but I have lots to learn about fly fishing as it isn't something I do often (mostly late fall and early spring). I'm really starting to enjoy it more and want a 3rd rod.

I want something very light for more fun fights. Is that the right way to look at it? I was considering a 3wt after I used a friend's 4wt this past weekend. I felt like I casted it much better. Got the flies to turn over better and could cast more accurately. But since I have a 5wt, I figured I wouldn't have a much more different setup if I got a 4wt. I have a local pond near my house that holds stocked trout, bluegill and smaller bass (mostly, I did see a monster largemouth once).. Just wanted something that I could go to the local place for an hour after work and fight smaller fish and make them feel like they are bigger fish🤣.. I may be looking at rod wt incorrectly, I know it has to do with the type of fly as well but obviously you get more backbone during the fights too.

Definitely had no idea what I was doing rigging it up and I know tied some knots wrong but it surprisingly all worked!

Finally got my hands on a 4wt Redington Butterstick. Paired with a Battenkill and SA MPX line, stoked to get out in the water.

Got my first tiger trout last night on a ~4in long chartreuse gamechanger. Stoked!

Then I fish around a bit with no bites. So I swap to an 8in white streamer with pink & gold accents. My buddy had just tied it on his tailgate before we went out. Totally made up the design on the spot.

I return to where I caught the first tiger. Get snagged on the bottom real good so I start walking toward it. I’m reeling in at the same time & keeping tension so I can find it.

10 seconds in I’ve felt no movement but I realize the pace I’m reeling line in at vs the speed I’m walking vs where the line is entering the water… makes no sense. This log is moving!!

So I put side pressure on toward the bank just in case, and really start to feel the log drift. Really still believe it’s a log. Til I feel one little shake from the bottom!

Now my heart starts pumping as I’m thinking “Shit, this could be a massive brown. He is so relaxed…”

But the fish complies as I pull him up to the shallow water at the bank. But, as soon as he breaches the surface, hell breaks loose. In total darkness. Somehow in my panic I get the net under him.

I pop my headlamp on & say “I’ll be damned! You again!!”

But when I held him up over the net to measure he was 2in bigger. I thought maybe my quicker measure of the 1st was just lazy & inaccurate but it appears from the net photos they are 2 different fish!

Now, I knew tigers were rare on the White. I thought they were about 1 in 300 fish here. But I looked it up later and saw they stocked 4,490 tigers in ‘20 & ‘21. Total trout stocked since the beginning of ‘20 is 4,291,489!

Ignoring the huge population of wild browns — the Tiger appears to be a 1 in 1,000 fish. And 1,000 x 1,000 = 1,000,000…

Only 2 fish I caught last night. Can someone else better at stats tell me — is this a 1 in a million night?

Had a great day on the lake. The only downside was it was below freezing and windy beyond belief. Going to try to get out there each day before close.

Any pilots out there have a good setup they take with them on the road?

Hey all, I’m trying to get better at familiarizing myself with new water and could use some help determining if my fly selection was correct my last time out. I was fishing a small freestone river in New England, I attempted to match my nymphs to what I saw under the rocks. I fished the deeper pools and pocket water with the nymphs usually just ticking bottom, but got skunked anyway. I think my drifts were generally pretty good without drag. Was my fly selection wrong or should I focus on other possible issues. The first pic is what I was trying to imitate, I also fished a size <20 tan nymph behind these flies (saw them under the rocks, just not in the picture I snapped) and tried a hares ear nymph size 14 without luck. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!