Sunday’s Classic / Kype for Days

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Buster the Steelhead. Photo By: Louis Cahill

I love it when I luck up and catch a big male trout, steelhead, salmon, or char. There’s something about big gnarly kype jaws that fascinate me. For starters, males always seem to sport more vibrant colors than hens, especially during the spawning season. In the wild and according to my catch rates, there seems to be a higher ratio of females to males in most watersheds I fly fish. If you really want to know what gets me fired up when I land a big male, it’s the fact that every male specimen I catch, seems to have its own unique face and features, just like all of us. It probably sounds weird, but I always find myself trying to imagine what the fish would look like if it was a person. The big kype always turns into a big smile, and the shape of the snout ends up being the shape and size of the person’s nose. For no rime or reason, it happens like clock work before I release every bruiser. God bless all the kype jaws swimming around out there in our watersheds. They always make my guide days a little extra special and rewarding when they show up.

Am I alone here in how cool I think Males with big kypes are? 

Keep it Reel,

Come fish with us in the Bahamas!

Kent Klewein
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
 
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17 thoughts on “Sunday’s Classic / Kype for Days

  1. Heck yes he’s smiling, especially during pre spawn. We all had that same goofy grin through high school and college, heading into Saturday night with the day off, no class tomorrow, with a good running start on the evening with a head full of bad intentions. Or maybe we’re projecting a little?

  2. You are definitely not alone my friend! I love me some Kype jaws! And they’re just as cool on smaller trout, like Brookies, as well. It’s definitely a bonus when you put one of these guys in your net!

  3. you are not alone! Sounds like the more vibrant colors of the male during spawning season fall in line with a lot of other species of the animal Kingdom..I think bird people know what I am talking about. Very interesting post..I wish it was 5 times as long.. Thanks Louis..good comments

  4. I love the kypes! Over here in The Netherlands I always go to my favourite lake in winter to catch those gnarly kyped monsters in awesome colours. It’s always an added bonus. Especially on brooktrout, with their oversized mouths.

    • Jasper,

      Where I live, we don’t really have a lot of opportunity to fish to salmonids in stillwaters. I can only imagine how much fun you have fly fishing on them. Male brook trout are magnificent catches with giant mouths and brilliant colors. Hope you have some time over the holidays to fly fish. Thanks for the comment.

      Kent

      • Kent, when you make it up north to fish we have all kinds of awesome opportunities to catch a salmonid in stillwater. Anything from staging wild fish at the mouth of a river to a tiny lake with annually stocked trout. I connected with a steelhead in a very unusual location this past September in a very large lake…it was in smallmouth territory, very shallow and over gravel..and not very close to the rivers..I suspect they (there were 4 or 5) following the shoreline to the river. Anyways…think about it.

      • Thanks for your reply, Kent
        Actually, I envy you. A lot.
        Although my 700 acres favourite lake has very wary and beautiful fish in really large sizes (average 50-65cm), the fish are stocked.
        The fish are super healthy and perfectly finned rainbows, browns and brooks.
        I love the place, but there’s nothing like catching wild fish in beautiful surroundings like you do.

  5. Amen, brother. It also has special meaning in the “home river” you and I share, a place where there are so many nay-sayers about the spawn. Our spawn may significantly add to the fish population, but it is very cool to know it happens and gives us the occasional opportunity to carefully hold a kype-jawed fish with a gnarly, rugged beauty and to catch fish born in the river instead of a hatchery.

  6. Any fish that has a smile like a bulldog impresses me! Its like he dares you to sink a hook in his face because he is gonna tear up your junk. I love Jesus, family, and gnarly kype jaw battles!

  7. You are certainly not alone here. The kype is the thing that tells you the big boys are in town.

    Love them all.

    I will post one of my favorites on the page for all to share in.

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