March Madness (3/2)

[Latimeria]

The plan for today was to take Steve out on a bay trip, come home then head out on my last lobster trip of the season with my buddy on his boat.  Unfortunately this week I caught a bug and was sick as a dog.  Since I have Sx coming up on Thursday, I'm not allowed to take any meds or vitamins all week. It's not been easy trying to knock this bug down without any meds.  I still wasn't at full strength this morning, so decided to cancel fishing in the rain.  If I was going to fish in the rain, I was going to be inside a truck cab with the heater running!

Dave fished yesterday for 2 missed trout and a pond chicken.  I didn't have a lot of hope for a stellar day, but it was better than sitting on my recliner all day.   

I ran down to the puddles at the opening and set shop at spot number one.  It wasn't long before I was hooked up and with a Good one!  I got him close a few times and a solid 3.5# class fish!  I got it turned for the 7th time and heading towards the net when the hook just pops out!  Oh No!  It was a pretty nice grade fish, so I was a little bummed losing it.

About 30 minutes later and I see both of my strike indicators dropping!  I then realized it was one trout that wrapped around my other line, Great...  I figured it out and cut the empty line and got the little 1.5# to the net.



Then it was crickets... So I moved to another lake and go on a hunch I was having.  Started out great and in short time, I was on!  This trout was a better grade fish around 2.5#.



Then the bass guys showed up... and about 20-30 bird watchers all hanging around my truck.  I saw I had another bite and went to run down, but all of the birders were in the way and it popped off before I got there.  They seemed aggravated with me for trying to run through them to get the rod, so I decided to pull out my crowd dispersion.  Everyone was on the gray hair side, so I threw in some Corrosion of Conformity and blasted it with all of the windows open!  Wow, it worked out so much better than I hoped, and they scurried away like roaches in a kitchen after the light was turned on.

I think I had another bite, but I really wasn't feeling it here anymore either, so decided to spend the last hour at another spot.  It wasn't long and I was on again!  As I was fighting it, I noticed my other rod was doubled over too!  different fish!  I worked the one I was fighting to the net and turned to grab the other rod, but that fish was gone.  Almost a double header! 

Then my strike indicator goes off again and it was another nice cookie cutter trout.  By now, I had a few people casting the Walmart White rods with big yellow and orange bobbers over my way.  Ugh, this was starting to become a little bit of a chore.

I only needed one more and got rocked, but all it did was tear my nightcrawler in half, so I replaced it with a pinched crawler.  Well, my strike indicator dropped and then literally flew off the line!  I was there in seconds and knew right away it was a REALLY NICE fish!

I could only put so much pressure on 4# test, but it was spooling me!  Literally like a bat ray at the bay!  I finally turned it and it jumped.  At this point I got a little weak at the knees since I saw how big it was but finally started gaining line back.  Well, that didn't last as it turned to the middle of the lake and ran everything except 10 yards of line off my little reel!  80 yards of 4#is now out in the lake and I'm sweating it!  Thankfully after another jump, it landed with its head towards shore, so it came running towards me and I got line back.  Now it's a take 10 yards, lose 10 yards deal.  This was the toughest local trout fight by far I've had yet.

After a bit, I finally got it to jump again and try to semi-circle by the shore before it would have made a big run again, but came close enough for me to get a net under it...  WOW!



I had a bunch of people now checking it out and not believing this thing was swimming in here.  It was my 5th trout on the stringer, so instead of staying around for some catch and release, I decided to pack it in.  Everyone that saw it now swooped in to take up every square inch of space I had.

I took a few pictures of the stringer before finally putting up the tailgate and heading home.



I got home and put it on the scale.  My previous record was the 7.93# Lightning Trout I caught last week with Dave, and I got a 7.3# Lightning Trout earlier this week.  Now when the scale stopped, I saw a 9.31# Chunky Rainbow as a new PB!  Hole crap!

25" and over 18" in diameter!  It was a butterball!



Just the normal nice 17-18" trout are usually a treat, but I could have fit all 4 in here with maybe room to spare!



The fillets were out of this world, but my wife said "I'm pretty much done with Lobster and Trout for a while".... That means she's ready for some land mammals again.  lol



Well, I stayed warm and dry and had a great day of catching trout.  I still have the bug, but at least I feel I didn't make it any worse by staying out in the elements.  Well, I still can't believe what a year for Trout and Cats I've been having.  All I know is this is one for my personal record books and I'm digging the convenience!

Thanks for reading and until next trip!

[sasquatch]

I would have matched your dispersal music with some alien sex fiend. Could have cleared the lake between the two of us.

[Latimeria]

I would have matched your dispersal music with some alien sex fiend. Could have cleared the lake between the two of us.

I would have just been a curmudgeon, but when I got 'tude for trying to get through them to get to my rod... it was time for action.  lol

[jrodda]

Lol to the crowd dispersion technique. Another awesome fish, congrats on the PB! The quality from your puddles in general has a high floor.

There's a stocked lake between my house and my new work, I'm contemplating putting in a few hours while there might still be a few trout left. Last stock was probably last week and it's got the Idaho farm fish.

[Latimeria]

Lol to the crowd dispersion technique. Another awesome fish, congrats on the PB! The quality from your puddles in general has a high floor.

There's a stocked lake between my house and my new work, I'm contemplating putting in a few hours while there might still be a few trout left. Last stock was probably last week and it's got the Idaho farm fish.

Dude, get 'em and congrats on the new gig!

[skrilla]

Congrats on another PB.

[Tim524]

Geezer repellent for trout fishing and tweaker repellent for Mission Bay  Epic season for you so far, pretty cool. The smoker is getting a workout as well. Good luck with your surgery !