Last Day Of C&r Season

[duckydoty]

Got a little fishing in on the river today. It was a hard decision wether to fish Crane or Roaring River. I opted with the river since today was the final day of C&R. The weather was great, fishing was good, and got to see and old friend on the water today.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I spied this fella in full concentration performing his magic.

Nice to see you again Rick and congratulations on that 13 pounder!

My first fish of the day was a good one to start the day with.

I ended up landing 4 lunkers today. Not a bad way to end the season.

Caught several sculpins today also.

All my fish were caught on a white mink leech or sculpin pattern. Well, we have to stay out of the parks for 2 weeks now, so I'll be hitting Crane and Taney over the next couple of weeks.

[kdan]

You are right Ducky. It was a beautiful day at the park. Nice to have met you. And nice fish too!!!

It was indeed a thrill to watch Laker fool that 13 lber. It is alive to be caught again another day, probably on March 1. (to bad)

And a great big congratulations to you Laker on number 31.

[laker67]

Thanks Duane. It was great to see you as well. Things don't get much better than today. I got to spend the day on the water with two good friends, and caught a giant fish as well. You had a good day and it sounds as if you caught a couple more after Kdan and I left. I'll be looking forward to seeing you and MC on the 2nd. Kdan actually hooked up with this huge rainbow earlier in the morning. After a short fight with several head shakes, the fish broke off. Don't anyone tell Leonard, but I caught it on his "hibenator fly". He will go into a strut if he finds out. What Kdan was referring to is this is my thiry first fish over 10 pounds. By all rights I should have been congratulating Kdan instead of the other way around. It would have been nice to see "him" have landed the fish.

[jjtroutbum]

Sounds like you guys all tore em up. Thanks for the report. Tell us about that fine looking landing net.

[duckydoty]

You are right Ducky. It was a beautiful day at the park. Nice to have met you. And nice fish too!!!

It was indeed a thrill to watch Laker fool that 13 lber. It is alive to be caught again another day, probably on March 1. (to bad)

And a great big congratulations to you Laker on number 31.

Great to have met you too kdan. What a thrill it must have been running around fishing with Laker as teenagers!

[duckydoty]

Thanks Duane. It was great to see you as well. Things don't get much better than today. I got to spend the day on the water with two good friends, and caught a giant fish as well. You had a good day and it sounds as if you caught a couple more after Kdan and I left. I'll be looking forward to seeing you and MC on the 2nd. Kdan actually hooked up with this huge rainbow earlier in the morning. After a short fight with several head shakes, the fish broke off. Don't anyone tell Leonard, but I caught it on his "hibenator fly". He will go into a strut if he finds out. What Kdan was referring to is this is my thiry first fish over 10 pounds. By all rights I should have been congratulating Kdan instead of the other way around. It would have been nice to see "him" have landed the fish.

MC is looking forward to the 2nd. I picked up two more nice ones at the twin falls after you guys left. Did not see the big sow again. She must have been sulkin.

[duckydoty]

Sounds like you guys all tore em up. Thanks for the report. Tell us about that fine looking landing net.

Boy, I need to quit carrying MC's net around. I forgot to grab mine again and hers was in the car ready to go. That fine looking landing net is a custom made net that was flawlessly hand crafted by one of our very own fellow OAF'ers none other than Laker67 himself. A few years ago, MC requested a new net big enough to hold the lunker trout that she was now persuing with alot of success. I was truely honored to be lucky enough to get one of these nets from Rick and proudly gave it to my wife, DD'sMC, for her birthday. At that point in time I was officially dubbed "Net Boy"

[kdan]

Well there is more to this, so now you will hear "the rest of the story".

After this fish broke me off, I guess that is what I get for refusing to use anything bigger than 7X during daylight hours.

I was contemplating what to tie on next and how to go about catching the next "big one". Laker walks by and asks where did she go?

I dunno, downstream is all I know. He says he will tie on the big "hibanator" and run it through the fast water to see what he stir up.

As I am going through my box and retying I watch Laker run that ginormus fluff ball through the fast water. well you ain't agonna believe this

but that big fish layed up underneath the "waterfall" and Laker caught this thing totally in the blind with out a clue she was in there. After

a brief fight she was nothing but dead weight on his line. After removing that wad of feathers from deep within this fishes mouth, he lets her go

and she sinks like a rock and lays over on her side. Oh, I might add she had a gigantic girth and was squirting eggs the whole time she was being

released. Any ways, as Laker heads off toget someone from the hatchery (we don't want her to die) I gets a long stick and lay over the side so I can reach her.

As I lay over the edge holding her upright with that stick and fearing my $400 prescription glasses will fall off my head,

what seemed like the rest of the morning but probably only 20 minutes she finally regains enough strength to stay upright. By the time

Laker gets back with the hatchery guy she had swam off. This fish was big, old, and probably nearing the end of her life or she wouldn't be

in the creek.

And now you have it, "the rest of the story".

Some times it takes skill and some times it just takes luck to fool one, but it ALWAYS takes skill to land one!!

Way to go, Rick!!

[laker67]

You told the story well. This fish owes the rest of her adult life{march one} to your continued effort to revive her. Thank you my good friend.