After catching/releasing fifteen or so West Medical rainbows, I loaded out and headed to Medical for some real fighting fish. At Medical, I initially fished a stillwater nymph vertically on a Type VI sink line in 25 feet of water, utilizing that slow retrieve that is so effective this time of year. While this nymph and technique was the ticket at West Medical, it drew only a few bumps and taps at Medical. I switched to a black epoxy chironomid and immediately hung a strong, hard-running and jumping fish that had me convinced me it was a rainbow. Upon getting him to the boat I was ecstatic....it was an 18" tiger! Talk to anybody who fishes Medical on a regular basis and they'll tell you tigers are very few and far between. That tiger represented 80-90% of the effort that goes into a Trifecta (or Triple, if you will) of getting one each of rainbow, brown and tiger at Medical. Ten minutes later I eased a 18" brown into the net....two down and one to go!!! 15 minutes later I lost another brown at my pontoon, but at the time, did not realize the significance of that lost fish. The next hour passed uneventfully. I became convinced I was going to have to lift anchor and begin kick-finning in order to get a rainbow and complete the feat. Making what was to be my final switch, I tied on my partner Den's black/red snowcone, Before that fly even settled out vertical, a fish slammed half my fly rod into the water. In short order I became convinced it was a rainbow. Although it never jumped, it's long powerful runs and taking of several feet of additional line told the story. I played that fish as gently and carefully as I've ever played a fish and, several minutes later, eased a football 18" rainbow into the net. YES!!! OLYMPIC GOLD!!! I got the Trifecta in only three fish to net!!! Probably won't happen to me again in my lifetime. All at 18" too, that's weird. Anyways, getting the Trifecta at Medical is not impossible. My partner, Gator, and I each did it once last year. However, we both needed 10-12 fish to net in order for it happen.

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