Lightning Strikes Three Times in 2024 (2/19)

[Latimeria]

I'm leaving this as a place holder since I didn't get around to putting a post up yesterday but took Dave to Santee Lakes (His first time I think) and we both caught a few nice trout.  Well, one was my PB!  I'll get the post up when I get home from work today.

Okay, here we go.

I was a little surprised when Dave mentioned about fishing the puddles on Monday.  Hell, I've known Dave for 24 years and never remember hearing him even talk about fishing there let alone actually hearing about him fishing there before.  How could I have said no after all of the success I've been having. 

I met Dave at the entrance, and we decided where to fish.  I wanted to go to my cat/trout spot, but Dave wanted to hit one of the puddles that was stocked lately, so I was game. 

There wasn't many people fishing since it's been 2 weeks since the lakes were stocked last.  Hell, it's been well over a month since Stockzilla happened with some monster Lightning Trout in the Mix.  I already pulled a 5.7# Lightning trout out a month ago and that was even a week after the big one.

Well, we set up and I can be honest, I was hoping to see Dave catch at least one.  He's been on a bad trout streak lately.... like a few years of skunk type of bad.  Well, we set up and I think I could even see a smile under his mustache when all of a sudden his rod doubled over!

Boom!  First one on the board with a nice 18" 'Bow!



Now I'm getting a little twitchy since I can DEFINITELY see him smiling under that mustache!  lol.  I put on a entire crawler and inflated my favorite side.  I gave it a good trout dip and lobbed it the distance I saw Dave cast.  I walked over to change/check the bait on my other rod when I saw my strike indicator on the rod I just casted acting weird.  I walked over to the rod when I knew I had one on!  I set the hook home and knew this was huge!  First instinct because of the weight was a catfish... Then it started to feel like a trout..... AND THEN IT SURFACED!!!!  Holy sh!t!!!!

One of the best parts was hearing all of Dave's adjectives he was using everytime it came to the surface!  That brought a smile to my face!  LOL

Dave's back is in bad shape and he doesn't have much reach in those arms, so I grabbed the net from him.  By now, it was a lengthy fight and I drew a little morning crowd.  When I netted it, everyone was like "What the hell is that!?!?", yet I still heard Dave over their chatter going "Holy f@ck... that's a Lightning Trout!".  lol



I didn't have a scale or tape, but I also didn't want to alert every trout rat in a 20-mile radius about this thing!  I knew right away, it was way bigger than the last two I got.  Hell, it's the third BIG Lightning trout in less than 2 months, where I've only caught 2 in 27+ years prior!

Now Dave got a little more pep in his step and he checked and changed out his crawlers.  It wasn't more than 10 minutes after his recast, and he goes bendo again!  Now I definitely KNOW I saw him smiling! 
This one was a healthy 18" of jumping 'Bow!





Man, that was a fun little run we had before things went quiet.  The next few hours, not even a sniff until I saw my strike indicator getting a bite.  Nothing stuck, but I reeled in a tiny piece of worm with everything else chewed off.

I cast out again and ordered a Detroit Pie from Angry Pete's online.  I walked over to pick it up and they greeted me with "We're out of pizza"....  I'm like "You know your a pizza place and you just opened for the day.... You ran out of pizza?".  Just when I thought that was bad enough, I asked for a refund and they said "You need to take it up with the app service to get your money back...".  This is where I responded, great... You have an Angry Pete and now you just met "Angry Tom".... f@ckers... No business from me anymore, not even an apology.

I got back to tell Dave I don't have any pizza for him and explained the event.  I was hung over and really looking forward to that pizza, but was denied, so I checked out the lightning trout and it kind of cheered me up a little bit. 

I set my 15-minute timer and 5 minutes left, I see the indicator drop and trout on!  It came belly up at first so I thought it was another Lightning Trout but turned out to be a chunky normal one.



Of course, I had to cast out again, but after another 30 minutes just called it the day.  I cooked up a frozen pizza at home, and it did the trick.

I measured it out at 24.25" and 16.8" around!  I put it on the scale and weighed 3 times.  It came out exactly at 7.89 pounds each and everytime.  Just WOW!



Look at all that belly fat!?!?!  I'm not even sure what I'm actually looking at.  hahaha



As I went through the belly, I found my Nightcrawler... and a big old Sluggo!  hahahaha



Some bass guy out there thought he had his double digit bass that he never saw!  I can't believe this thing slurped down such a big bass bait.... especially with that little head on it. 

Man, these things have sensational meat!



Well, that was it.  I was super happy and took a much-needed rest when I got home.  I tied one on the night before and stayed up until 1:00 before hitting the sack.  Two late nights from me are rare in a month, let alone a week, but well worth it.

Thanks for reading and I can't believe the Puddles are finally treating me well!

[skrilla]

Nice one Tom, congrats on the PB! Dave, way to shake off the streak!

[jrodda]

What a roll you're on! Congrats on another one.

You aren't gonna melt down all that belly fat as a "trout reduction" for future meals?

And bummer on that pizza place. Makes me rethink using the third party pickup apps and just calling the restaurant directly in the future. Super weird they didn't have any pizza at time of open though.

[vdisney]

Nice fish Tom, the story about the pizza place cracked me up.  I'm trying to figure out why they even showed up in the first place   

[sasquatch]

I call BS on Dave smiling.

[Latimeria]

I call BS on Dave smiling.

Third picture down!  Look at that giant smile!

[Latimeria]

Makes me rethink using the third party pickup apps and just calling the restaurant directly in the future. Super weird they didn't have any pizza at time of open though.

That's the thing, they don't take phone call orders and only go through the app or the front window.  I didn't want to make 2 trips over there and who would have thought a pizza place wouldn't have pizza on a busy holiday?

[sasquatch]

I call BS on Dave smiling.

Third picture down!  Look at that giant smile!

My bad. For Dave that's a sh!t eating grin.