The rainbow was caught on a spinning reel using power bait with 4 lb test line around 10:30 am Saturday, April 29, 2006. The fish was 27 inches in length and 19 in girth and weighed 11.5 lbs. Taneycomo had received several inches of rain Friday and Saturday morning but there was no power generation from the dam since we arrived on Thursday. It had been raining hard all night and morning but it let up to a slow drizzle around 9:30 am so we decided to take the boat out. There were four of us in the boat, Wally Meyer, Dave Hass, Marc Meyer, and myself. Since there was very little wind and no current to drift we decided to anchor the boat just upstream from Lilley's Landing. I was using minnow on a bottom drift rig hoping to catch a brown trout when I decided put another line out with orange and white power bait. It’s a good thing I was holding the rod when the fish struck or I would have lost it. I knew immediately that it was a large fish as it started peeling the line off my reel at a rapid rate and I could feel the power and strength of the fish through the graphite rod. It was very fortunate for me that the fish was not near any structure or the bank or it would have probably broken the line. After the fish made several runs of stripping line of my reel and me taking it back I was able to get the fish closer to the boat. It then decided to go under the boat and towards the bank on the other side. I'm not sure how I was able to get it back except for letting the little ultra light graphite rod do the work by keeping tension on the fish. It then came back to my side of the boat and came within two feet from the surface. My brother, son and friend that were in the boat with me couldn't believe it. It was the largest rainbow trout we had ever seen up close. I had to find a way to catch this beautiful fish! Every time my son made a move to put the net in the water the fish dived and stripped off more line. At that point I wasn’t sure we could ever land it. Then my brother took the net and slowly lowered the net into the water near the boat and left it there. Once I was able to coax the fish close the surface my brother was able to get the net under the fish. After the fish was in the boat I realized how I was shaking from the battle. It was truly and experience of a lifetime.
Darrel Meyer
Lenexa, KS
