My son and I have found this great fishing spot, not 10 minutes from our house.
The lake is stocked regularly with rainbow trout, and is fed by springs at the bottom of the lake.
Fish that aren't caught early in the year have plenty of food to eat to put on some decent weight by early fall.
So Jake and I decided it was a good day to go fishing. We were using our usual gear, about a quarter ounce bullet weight, slip
fit above the swivel and about 5 feet of 4 pound leader which terminates at a half and half Dick Nite. Killer combination if you've never tried it.
Fishing wasn't incredible like it is early in the summer when the fish are fresh out of the hatchery and hungry, but we had had 4 fish to the boat.
Jake then hooked what he thought must have been a pile of weeds, so he started cranking. The view from the stern of the boat
showed a different story however, and it made me chuckle a little.
The fish was just swimming at a slight angle away from the boat, acting as if it didn't know it was hooked yet. I let Jake pull it in
a ways before I assured him that his line wasn't out the side of the boat because he had weeds on his line. Jake, in typical fashion,
handled this fish with about as much patience as a child with a full bladder. He got it close to the boat, and saw how big it was, just in time
to see the fish dive for the bottom. Unfortunately, his drag had been set way too tight, and his ultralight rod bent like a noodle.
As gently as I could, I told him he needed to loosen the drag or he would break it off. Just as he reached to loosen the drag, the line went slack,
and the look in his face was of utter disappointment, knowing that he had just lost the biggest fish of his life. What a bummer.
Just then, something smacked into the back of my chair, fell to the bottom of the boat, and proceeded to make quite a raucous, slapping against the
gas tank and the side of the boat. Still hooked, the fish had turned straight back up toward the surface and jumped right into the boat.
The result was priceless. The look on Jakes face was shear pleasure and disbelief. He looked at the fish, and all he could say was,
"That fish is Huuuuuuuge!"
The laughter that moment could have been heard for miles, and Jake decided it was time to go home - and show off his 16 inch prize!
