Yesterday I lost a really nice trout. It was very powerful and I did not have it under control for even a second before it bit through 10 pound power pro. The trout must have had alligator teeth to bite through power pro. I have tried to bite the line and human teeth can not do it easily. After swearing for a while a long dormant memory came to mind.
I was 15 years old and fishing at the dam in Gays Mills. The local slayer of huge pike was there. He was a fixture on the west side of the dam. He had his place. People would even move when they saw “Cap Stussy” walking down the bank. He was a legend in Crawford County. He always sat down nearest to the wall where it met the building. He fished the exact same way every time. He had a large sinker with a dead sucker hooked through the back and fished off the bottom there. He would sit there all day or until he caught a huge pike.
Cap told lots of fish stories when he sat there. As a kid I listened carefully to what he said. I had seen him catch monster pike numerous times. When he spoke I listened. He told me about a secret spot he fished as a child. He had not gone there in 20 years. He told me exactly where to sit and how to get down to the water. I took my bicycle out in to the country to find his childhood secret pike lair.
It was about 2 miles out in the country. It was quite a pain in the butt to ride the bike one handed with my fishing pole over my shoulder. I held my rod in mouth when my one arm biking got tiring. I knew the area he had divulged. It had a big watercress pond and a spring trickled out the backside of the pond and emptied into the Kickapoo River about 50 yards away. This was where “Cap” had told me to fish for giant pike.
I wasn’t there very long when I lost my only daredevil on a submerged log. I had a couple size 8 bait holder hooks with me and some split shots. I thought what the heck so I rolled over some logs and picked up some worms and sat there for a bit soaking a worm. The worm found the same submerged log as the daredevil and I broke off. I felt defeated and put my rod over my shoulder and headed back to the road.
As I started to leave I spooked a frog in the grass. I captured it and decided to use it as bait and give the secret spot one more try. Frogs can be used as bait if they not endangered and caught on the stream you are fishing on. I decided to hook the frog through its upper lip so it could swim around on the bottom. I put on 2 split shots to hold it down. I had never tried a frog before.
I flipped the frog out near where the spring fed into the Kickapoo and took a seat. I envisioned having to sit there for quite a while to catch anything. Boy was I wrong. Within 15 seconds of throwing the frog in something large took it and ran with it. I set the hook after I let it run about 10 feet.
The fish was powerful and hunkered down on the bottom and refused to come to the surface. After what seemed like an eternity it started to tire and I got it somewhat under control and got it to the surface. I was flabbergasted at what I had hooked. It was a ginormous female brown trout. It was the biggest trout I had ever seen. It was over 30 inches and fat like a hog. I had no net so I needed to tire it out before I could land it.
I got it near shore and on its side so I thought was time to grab it. I laid down on my belly with the rod bent in half over my head and reach out over the bank trying to grab the enormous beast. I remember putting just one finger on the monster and it was having no part of me trying to land it. It exploded on the surface and dove down for one more run. Before I could get to my feet it wrapped itself in that same log I had lost my daredevil on and snapped my line.
I must have rode my bike out there forty more times that summer trying to tangle with the biggest trout I have ever had on in my life and she was not home. The next year I got my drivers license and drove out there another 50 times. I remember the loss of that fish just like it was yesterday.
Attachments:
damGMLen.jpg
