The Golden Trout

A true story by William D. Anderson

Once upon a time, a lone fisherman set out in search of the elusive Lake Trout. He meticulously arranged the gear in his boat so that everything would be in order and he would have little trouble landing a big fish if he were to get that lucky. The beginning of his quest seemed destined for success. The skies were cloudy and the wind was from the south which meant that the big lake should be calm. Everything looked good.

Upon arriving at his destination, the clouds parted and the angler knew this would make his quest even more difficult. The angler began to cast different lures hoping that one of the elusive Trout would bite. After trying several different tactics, the angler gave up and moved to another area where he had had success in the past. Upon arriving at this location he found that he was unable to get into his spot because the 4 foot waves would have surely landed both him and his boat upon the sandy beach. Fishing in the swells was one thing, but the strong southeast wind combined with the strong winds of the previous day created a current that caused the large waves once the water was pushed against the shallow shoreline.

Not wanting to give up his quest, the angler returned to his previous spot. Once again he began making different offerings in the hope that he could persuade one of the elusive fish to bite. Still the fish were absent. After the fisherman decided it would be best to return home fishless, he decided to make one more cast. Slowly he twitched the lure back to the boat, pausing every few seconds to let the lure sink back to the bottom.

After a couple twitches, he felt the familiar hard tap of a fish. He set the hook and the beast began to fight. It ran very quickly towards deeper water, then turned and ran towards the shoreline. The angler fearing that he would loose the fish and all the line on his reel began to chase after the fish. Very quickly he had gone from 40 feet of water to 9 feet. The fish made a turn at which point the angler caught a glimpse of his fish. There it was. The Rapala Minnow lure was stuck in the lower lip of a giant Golden Trout. The angler had never seen one of these before but had heard that they existed in this body of water. He was thrilled because this fish would be one of the largest he'd caught this year if he were to land it.

The fish made another powerful run towards deeper water. The angler gave chase again an very quickly the locator was reading 15 ft, 20, 25, 30, then 50 feet. At this point the fish swam around in circles allowing the angler to gain a little line back at each turn.

What seemed like an hour later the angler finally had worn out his fish and was able to pull the fish close enough to net it. With the rod in one hand and the net in the other, the angler slipped the net into the water only to find that the fish was almost too big for the net. On the second attempt, he was able to guide the 43 inch monster fish into the net.

After taking a couple photos of the fish he grabbed the closest scale which was a 25 lb spring scale. The fish pegged it with no trouble at all. Content with winning his battle the angler held up his fish for a passing boat to see which caused the other boat to stop to admire the giant fish.

The driver of the other boat took off his sunglasses and exclaimed, "Wow, that's gotta be the biggest Carp I've seen in this lake".

(-: Click Here to see the The Golden Trout :-)