11th Hour Trout

[rawkfish]

So... it's December.

I roll up to the ramp about twenty minutes before sunrise.  "Here goes one last day of sitting on a little lake freezing my butt off for minimal, if any results", I thought.  This was the last day of the year I was planning on fishing.  I scramble to get my gear put together and get out on the water so I can have the first crack at some of "the big ones" as the locals call them.  As the morning goes on, more people show up and hang out near the lake.  The trout truck is supposed to come today and it seems everyone knew it. 

I throw spinner after spinner at large swirls all morning.  My spinner was followed twice only to end in a large swirl as I'm reeling in to my kayak.  Ice was choking up my rod guides.  The fog seemed determined to hang out as long as it could.  It was cold.

Every once in a while I would see her.  Her fin or tattered tail or even just a swirl that seemed way too large for a trout pond.  She was hanging out in the same spot that she was a couple of days before.  There were other big trout hanging around, but she was the beast.  The last time I was on the pond I threw plenty at her.  This time, I threw an even larger variety of metal and also some powerbait at her.  She must have seen my offerings well over 50 times over the course of a couple of days and she didn't seem the least bit interested.

The trout truck came around the time the fog let up for a little bit and the crowd gathered round.  For about a half hour after the trout were dumped, people were trying to practically place their lure in the mouths of these confused fish.  I tossed a bead of power bait near the dump site a couple of times but quickly lost interest and went back to working the area where the big ones were hanging out. 

About 2 in the afternoon I was anchored up, dangling a powerbait ball under a float when a trout jumped clean out of the water about 10 yards from me.  It jumped out of the water again and was heading right towards me.  I grabbed my rod with a spinner on it, threw it to where the fish was, and just as the spinner was about to get back to the boat the trout nailed it!  It was somewhere between 14 and 15 inches so good eating size, but a measly ten point upgrade.  "Well, there are my minimal results", I thought.  It did feel good to finally get the skunk off though.  I paddled around and picked up another smaller one on the same spinner but threw it back.

A couple of hours pass by.  Most people have left.  A guy that I have seen on the bank and chatted with a couple times comes back after leaving for the middle part of the day.  We are both working the area around the nest of the big girl.  I continue to throw plenty of different styles and colors but no love.  The sun must have been just sinking behind the hills since the light was about to start fading. 

I put the spinner that caught the two previous fish back on and start throwing it again.  On about the third or fourth throw, a surge of water suddenly appears behind my spinner and my heart stops, along with my spinner, dead in its tracks.  An explosion of water and tail fin surges to the right and I immediately think to myself, "I'm screwed."  She must have finally been fed up with the shenanigans of my spinners buzzing by her nest and decided to destroy it.  Once I realized what had happened, I felt that there was no chance in hell I was getting this thing in the boat and it was at least nice that I could say I hooked her.  I quickly loosened up my drag and the reel started singing.  I put just enough pressure on the fish to pull the kayak right over to where the fish was.  She started swimming back and forth near the bank, pulling me along with her.  The Mini-X was a huge advantage for me since I could easily follow the fish by utilizing the maneuverability of such a small boat.  My bankie friend offered to help me land her if I could get her to shore.  Just as I thanked him and declined, she took off out into the lake.  I started paddling with one hand to try and keep up with her. 

The crummy thing about this lake is that it is choked with milfoil.  Most of the lake is only about 8 feet deep but the weeds take up about 6 of those 8 feet in most places.  Once I catch up to her, my heart sinks as I realized she dove down and wrapped herself up in the weeds.  Crap.  I'm now thinking that I'm at the end of my fight with this fish.  My rod is still loaded up, but there is no indication of movement on the line.  I'm expecting the line to part any moment as soon as she explodes out from under the weeds.  I steadily apply light pressure on the rod and I notice that the start of my short top shot of mono-filament is at my top guide so she can't be that far down.  I look closely into the water under my kayak and I can see the white tips of her top and bottom jaw opening and closing while tangled in a mess of weeds.  I grab my paddle with my free hand and stick it down to try and give her a push.  I push on her a couple of times with the paddle while still applying light pressure on the rod.  She starts to come up and before I knew it she was out of the weeds!  YES!!  By now it's been about 20 minutes and she's getting pretty tired.  The runs aren't strong and she's starting to show the signs of being done.  I look at my net and realize she's too big for it.  I try grabbing her lip with my lip grippers but her jaw is too thick for my grippers to get a good hold.  I left my game clip in the truck - a lot of good it does me there. I decide to give the net a shot.  I slip her head into the net and lift her with her tail hanging out.  It feels like the net is about to break but I heave her into the kayak and wrap her up with my legs.  Victory!!

I haul butt back to the ramp as the light from the day was failing.  The guy on the bank was willing to take some shots of the fish for me - thanks Richard!  She measured out to be 31 inches and weighed 16 pounds.  I used 8 pound test line on my bass rod to land her.  The spinner is a mangled mess and is now retired after a job well done. 

[craig]

Wow!  That is a huge fish.  Persistence pays off.

[sumpnz]

That first keeper you got is better than any trout I've ever caught.  And it looks like freakin' bait next to the other one.   

Way to go!

[pelagic paddler]

Way to go dude!  I knew you had it in yah!

[islandson671]

Nice HOG!! It's bigger than most of the salmon I caught all season.

[IslandHoppa]

Spectacular fish, well told story, great finale to your fishing year!

Congrats!

iHop

[Canceled]

Great fish and wonderful story! That is the biggest trout I have ever seen! What an incredible way to finish out the AOTY. I can tell people I gave a pizza to that guy once

[ndogg]

I knew with you being done with school for the year you were going to put some more points on the board, but that fish is just f'n ridiculous.  You may think you are safely in the lead, but once I catch a 200 point panfish, we'll see who is laughing. 

[Spot]

Feels good don't it?   

-Spot-

[micahgee]

What a catch 

I didn't realize that rainbows were that big!

[kykfshr]

Congrats on the porker and the strong AOTY finish!

Scott

[firebunkers23]

I don't know guys looks like a photo shop deal to me. Jest kidding Jeff that one fat trout I have caught some big trout but nothing like that! If you put that trout together with the lunker smallmouth bass that you caught you could feed a family of 4 for a year.

[IslandHoppa]

You gotta mount that one on the wall at the NWKA Clubhouse...or Next Adventure.

[deepcolor]

Did I see a GE logo on that beast?  Well done.

[FishTaco]

Holy crap, that things huge! Where were you fishing?