Christmas trout

[mar]

Decided to take the little dude for some trout fishing at a foothill lake this morning. Started out at first light....very cold morning. He was still half asleep when he got on the boat so I wrapped him up and he continued sleeping on the boat while I fished.

He's in there somewhere:


By the time he woke up, I already got 5 fish to the boat, trolling buggers and misc. stuff.


He woke up ready to go and after a quick breakfast of rice krispies and juice, the 3wt started bouncing. Fish on:


Made quick work of a nice chunker:



The action was pretty consistent and after reeling in a couple more fish, he wanted to be in charge of the net:



It warmed up a bit after the sun came out and the action slowed a bit. A lot of boats on the water by then and it was almost impossible to navigate the good trolling lanes.
So we beached the boat and found a little cove with some active trout.
Off he went looking for dinosaur fossils while I tried to bobbicate a few fish. Can't get enough of watching the bobber go down. Fish on:


Fish to hand after a nice battle:




Fun trip. Ended with 15 fish landed with a few missed strikes. Not a bad morning. We'll be doing this again for sure.

[Scott V]

That looks like a great day on the water. Nothing beats making memories.

[Fly Guy Dave]

Very cool! I'm glad to see that someone's out wetting a line and landing a few. I'm sure the "little dude" will look back on times like that with fondness.

Cheers!

--F.G. Dave

[EricO]

Nice report Mar. I see he already knows how to put the butt of the rod to his chest.

Better order him up a rod with a fighting butt for next Christmas!!

Thanks for sharing...looks c-c-c-c-cold!

EO

[mar]

Just can't seem to stay away from this lake. The little one and I hit it a few more times and have had some good days. Yesterday was a bit more noteworthy.

He caught his biggest trout so far on his own. Slowly trolling with the long rod and patiently waiting for the grab. This sucker nearly yanked the rod out of his hand but he held his ground. Epic battle on the 4wt:




The fish got the last laugh though. Another chunker, bigger than the one pictured above, hit the fly so hard that it yanked the 3wt overboard. We both watched in disbelief as the fish, flyline, rod/reel slowly disappeared into the depths. The 5+lb fish later surfaced a few times with my whole rig in tow but we were too late to snag any part of it

Lesson learned, right? Not really. Rigged up the 7wt, laid it unsecured on the boat and kept trolling. A few minutes later, another strong grab and the rod takes off but I caught just as it was about to go overboard. Landed a chunky 4lber and gave it the finger before letting it go.

I'd still call it a good trip. RIP 386 XP.