Tried Gerrys advice and did it pay off ! ! !

[Ol Pedro]

Hit the lake this morning. T-shirt weather at 6am. The dew on the grass soaked into my shoes and soaked out my socks. Saw the Eagle fly towards 6 flags. Gerry suggested that I try wacky rigging so I put one mousetail wacky rigged out. The tree sperm coated the water and helped float the line on the surface. Got bit right away on the wacky and landed a keeper Crappie. Had Wood ducks buzz by. 2 drakes chasing a hen. Caught three more small crappie and dropped a small trout at the bank. Fish were swirling all over the lake leaving holes in the surface film. No wind and very humid. Got another trout on the wacky set up. Missed a couple runoffs then had one come solid. Another small trout went on the stringer. The wacky rig got bit. I reeled fast and my rod doubled over. The Mitchell 308s drag started to sing." Why didn't I get a net" kept going through my head. This fish dogged me bad and I had to decide if I was going to walk it down to the end of the dam where the slope was slow or try and lip/hand toss this beast. I went with the latter. We did battle for what seemed to be 10 minutes . I sat as close to the water as I could(my feet were already wet) . I slid her to the edge of the bank and managed to lip her and walk up the incline. What a fish ! She was gut hooked and the leader was nicked up. Strung her up with the others and threw an extra half hitch to the stringer. Retied the leader and wackied another mousetail. The big Trout was pulling the other fish around when there was an explosion. Troy is back and I paid a 1 trout tax. I Iki Jimied my trout on other trips but left my knife in the truck. Figured if they didn't struggle than Troy wouldn't know they were there. Put all the small fish in the bucket and let the big girl swim around. Caught another drag puller on the 308 . This trout jumped a few times and I used the sit and lip again. This trout was around 2lbs. Finished up and was home around 9. Weighed the big girl on a kitchen scale .She went 4lbs 6oz. Thanks Gerry for the advice. I'm taking the swim bait with me next trip. Troy had better look out.