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Matt Holbert and I hit the Soque river in a popular public access fishing spot under a bridge. This is the craziest story! We were fishing with ultra lites with 4 lb. test line, no. 8 hooks, and corn right out of a can. We weren’t having much luck. Suddenly, fish on. It was a little guy. But it was our first fish! I unhooked the fish and Matt began inspecting the creature. After closer examinatin, he realized that it had stuff in its mouth. It was all the junk he had been eating coming back up out of its stomach. We found corn, salmon eggs, and an 8″ earth worm. I took the earth worm, cut it in half, and put half of it on my hook. I picked a likely spot right in the downflow of some smaller rapids in deeper water and let her rip. As soon as it hit the water, I felt a tug. I reeled tight and my rod immediately bowed over until I thought my line was going to break! Luckily, I had my drag fairly loose. I even reached up in mid stride and loosened it a bit. I knew that this fish was huge, and I didn’t want it to break off. The whole time I was reeling it in, I just knew there was no way I would possibly get this fish out of the water. The fish started swimming 90 to nothing back and forth, heading for cover in deeper water. I reeled as fast as I could, not making any progress. All you could here was my reel singing as line peeled off. 10 minutes later, after the best fight I have ever had with a fresh water fish, we had him on the bank! It was truly the most exciting moment in my fresh water fishing life! Once I knew the fish wasn’t getting back in the water, I threw my rod down and started jumping up and down. I was screaming with excitement! Matt had the hugest smile on his face while rattling off statements of disbelief. What had we just experienced?! A once in a life time catch, in a over fished area. I don’t have an official weight. I weighed the fish by first taking my weight on an average ho
usehold scale, then weighing again with the fish in my hands. It was right at 6 lbs. Late that night, we fileted it and grilled it. Yum!

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