another fishing tale...

Well this morning Courtney and I decided we would run away again and go fishing. So we did, at about 9:15 we got on the road which is two hours later than I planed (my alarm failed to wake me this morning). Basically most of the prime fishing time had passed but we decided we would still try anyway. We went to the same place as before except that we walked out onto a boat dock which was near the dam. I had picked up some new lures the night before and tried some of them out. I didn't get a hit on anything until I used dad's red and white spoon lure. I threw that out and probably on the third cast *boom* I get a huge hit. I'm reeling this fish and Courtney is getting excited. I must have caught the fish unaware because he didn't try to jump to get away like yesterday's brook did (which he did 3 times). This one tried to surface a time or two but I think I forced him back under. I got him up to the side of the dock and scooped him out with my net (I'm going to need a bigger one because all these fish are basically falling out of it when I pick them up). We brought a soft measuring tape with us today so that we could see how big the fish are. This beautiful Rainbow Trout measured in at 20 inches long and about 4 inches at the "waist" (thickest part). He didn't put up as much of a fight as the Brook did but it was still exciting. I had a lot more water I had to run him through before he got to the dock. After we got him turned back loose I couldn't even get another bite at that place so we moved back to the bank. We were about to pack up when I made a cast out with dad's red and white spoon and while in the process of reeling the lure back in I got an enormous bite. This fish hit the lure and pulled so hard I lost my balance on the rock I was standing on. I set the hook and the battle began. I started reeling him in and it felt like there was some other person on the other side who had a hold of the line and was pulling as hard as they could, or like when you get a snag in a river on a rock which is rolling down stream. I knew then that this was a monster, it had to be twice as big as the rainbow I had caught earlier. As I'm reeling in this fish pulls against me, lets up and then gives a huge pull and then the line went slack. My heart sank, I knew all to well what had just happened by how light the line felt. I reeled in the rest of my line and sure enough, there was no lure or swivel. This monster of a fish had hit my lure, taken it and broken the line in about a whole 4 seconds. I was awstruck, I have never caught a fish that hit my line as hard as that one did. I would give almost anything to have been able to see through the water and see what kind of fish it was and how big it was and whether or not my lure was embedded in its lip, stomache or resting on the river floor. This lack of identification will haunt me for some time to come. I'm hoping that when we go back tonight I might land that sucker and then see if I can find my lure in it. Until next time monster fish...
-D

A fishing tale...

Yesterday I decided I was going to do absolutely nothing productive. I started out the day by going paintballing. After that I came home ate, took a nap, and then went fishing. Courtney and I hopped in the car and took off to American Falls. We went fishing below the Dam on the Snake River. However before we got there we drove around for probably an hour trying to find some sportsman's access points that we ran into on one of our random drives where we get lost for fun. Unfortunately we didn't find any and so we just decided to go there. By the time we got there the sun was pretty low and we only had about 40 minutes to fish. Right now that area is limited to catch and release fishing with no barbed hooks or bait. So basically jigs, lures and flies. I used a couple of different spoons until I finally used one my father gave me. It was a silver spoon with red wavy lines on the sides. I threw that out and after a couple of casts I got a huge hit. And so the battle began... Well fortunately for me when the fish took the lure he was only about twelve feet from shore or else this would have been a long battle. When I finally reeled him in I was trying to get him in my net but he was still fighting me. I had landed myself a good ol Brook Trout. I know he was old because he was probably missing half his scales on one side and was quite large. I didn't have a tape measure but I estimate his size to be between 16 and 20 inches. He took the entire lure into his mouth and so I had to try to get all 3 prongs out. Which was difficult for several reasons, one being that every 6 seconds he would start flipping, another being that one prong was in each lip and the third in the roof of his mouth. I had to try to get that out without killing the creature. Needless to say I got him taken care of and sent him back to his fish friends. After that a few more casts turned up nothing and it was getting dark so we headed home.
-D