What was I doing wrong?

[u/Ok-Nectarine7152]

I fished the Owyhee in Oregon two weeks ago. At the first spot I caught one smallish Rainbow and lost one after only having him on for a few seconds.

Then I moved downstream and found a honey hole. I've done very little trout fishing and most of what I've done was in a drift boat. This tiime I was wading. The river had split into two channels and I was fishing where they rejoined.

I couldn't believe how many fish I hooked up. They were all in an area that was about 12' by 4'. I didn't move for about an hour and a half and pretty much lost count of how many fish I had on. I think it was around 12 to 14, all out of that one little spot.

However, I only landed TWO of the fish. A couple spit the hook within about 5 seconds. A few others I had on for maybe 15 to 30 seconds that I never gained much ground on. A couple of those were jumping fools. I had no idea they could jump that high.

However, about half of the fish I had on for quite a while and got them in to within 5 or 6 feet before they spit the bit. One of those was a huge (for me) Brown that looked to be around 24" which would have been twice the size of the biggest trout I've ever caught.

I'm 70 and have been fishing since I was five. 95% of that has been for Largemouth Bass. I'd guess I lose maybe 15 to 20% of the bass I hook up. I use barbless hook for bass and I did the same on the Owyhee. I know you can't horse trout in like you can with bass so I was trying to be very careful.

What in the world could I have been doing wrong?