Monster Lost...

A quick trip after work to a lake north of Pasco where Kirk and I had found a bunch of triploids around this time last year. It was 7 pm by the time we hiked in, just about the time when the rainbows started rising in the arm of the lake the previous year. Calm, warm, mostly overcast, perfect except the bows decided to be somewhere else this year. One other angler in a float tube said the water temp was 70°F, and the one trout he had caught was deep at the other end of the lake. Oh well, there were bass cruising the shallows; some very, very large. Out with the spinning rod and a perch rapala. Lesson for the day - there is a reason those bass fisherman on TV use 20 lb or 30 lb test line...

About the third spot I stopped along the shore, I pushed my way through the reeds to the edge of the water, cast to the left about 5 ft from shore. The line caught a little in the reeds, so the rapala sat there floating for a moment while I pulled the line free from the end of a reed. I reeled the line tight and immediately felt resistance, then really good resistance that started moving towards me. At first I thought stick or weeds, then I started to feel the back and forth of the fish swimming. I had a fish on! A pretty solid one at that as it continued to swim straight towards me. It came right in front of me about 12 ft out and passed by in its full glory. It was a huge largemouth! We had seen one earlier cruising that Kirk said was probably about 18" and 3 lbs. This was probably 6" longer than that and much, much fatter. After giving me the full-on side view, it decided it was hooked, turned, and ran steadily back where it came from. With 6 lb test that was several years old, I couldn't do much to try to hold it back. I also remembered this was a small spool on the old Mitchell 303, so I was starting to see the bottom of the spool when the fish stopped. The line was against the reeds as the behemoth had headed into some short reeds almost on the shore. Nothing to do but hop into the thigh deep soft muck adjacent to the reeds and slowly work towards where the fish was sitting, hoping it was still there. Keeping the line tight with my rod in the right hand, hanging onto reeds with the left, I made my way through the muck. I found my line tangled in some reeds, and as I reached down to get the line off, the fish splashed nearby into some more reeds a few feet away. Still on. Off the first reeds, on to the second tangle. Pulled the line off of those, but it was now pointed straight into another small clump nearby. A couple steps towards them, another big splash, and off went the fish, leaving the rapala on the reeds. Wow! Might not be a trout, but pretty cool. It could be fun to actually try and catch those things. With new, 20 lb test line. And a decent reel. And maybe a little skill rather than blind luck.

We fished a little more, not too concerned about the occasional distant rumble of thunder until we climbed out from the lake to where we could see the southern sky and a scary-looking wall of black. Kirk said we should be good, as storms generally move SW to NE. I told him I watched the weather the previous night, and the weather pattern had the storms tracking straight S to N, or directly towards us. We had 1 1/2 miles back to the car, so maybe we could beat it. About halfway to the car, multiple bolts flashed across the southern horizon. Then Kirk curled up in a ball on the trail and started crying softly. OK, he didn't actually do that, but he is seriously terrified of lightning. Seriously. Like he probably goes and climbs in his kids' bed with them when a storm comes through so they can comfort him. The storm appeared to me to be tracking a little east, but that wasn't consolation for Kirk. As the bolts got closer and the thunder louder, I gave him the keys so he could run ahead the last 1/4 mile to get to the car. The storm did track just a couple miles to the east, or it would have been right over us at the end. A fun evening, a monster lost, and some weather excitement to go along with it. Oh, and a new fishing strategy learned - if you are out with Kirk and he is crowding you a little, just pull out your phone, set off the flash, point to a nearby cloud and say, "Did you see that bolt?" You will then have the hole all to yourself...