did some fishing with cyndie today. fairly slow bite for most of the day. a few small brown trout were caught with one decent 18" what really made the day for us and made my year for me was fishing redhorse with the last few minutes of daytime at a spot that i have been skunked at the last few years. cyndie got the first fish a very fat silver.
i remained skunked as the weather started to take a turn for the worse. we began to talk about packing up and leaving. i decided to stay a few more minutes even though there was obviously a large storm on the horizon aproaching quickly. i set up my rod and waited for the bite. i got one good tap but lost the fish on a bad knot. my line must be going bad because this happened a few times today. i tossed out what was the final cast of the night and watched the rod tip close. a few minutes later the line snaked forward a bit and went tight, a tiny twitch at the end of the rod tip sealed the deal there was a fish. i set the hook and instantly felt weight on the end. it was barely fighting but it was enormous. i could not see what was on the end of the line. i could see massive boils and ripples across the top of the water every time the fish came close to the surface. i was starting to think i had hooked a large chunk of driftwood till i saw the fish rise to the top of the water. at first i couldn't tell what it was. at first i thought carp. big carp, but as the fish came closer i noticed it was no carp. as soon as i saw what it was cyndie bolted down the bank to land the fish. it had given up on coming in peacefully and was thrashing madly on the surface. as cyndie reached for the fish i heard a loud *SNAP* and saw my 1oz weight shoot into the air like a missile. my initial response to this was to throw my rod on the ground and let out a flurry of swear words... but the fish had not been lost. cyndie had made one last grab at the fish as it turned to swim off and at the cost of sinking her new boots into some nasty river mud she landed the fish for me. i ran down to the shore to take a look at my catch. it was a silver redhorse. unlike any silver i had ever seen in my life. this fish was massive. i really regret not having a tape measure on me. cyndie went a little overboard with the photo session and we got a tone of photos with the fish before it was returned to the water to maybe someday give another angler the same joy it brought me. its only march but this is fish of the year for me.
photos are a bit goofy. i was excited...
Nice fish, is that your hand bleeding or the fish?
ReplyDeleteI forget my measuring tape all of the time, i sometimes mark the fish against my body (leg if it's a big one...arm if it's a smaller fish). Then estimate from there.