The biggest rainbow of my life: a short story

[RyanLoughney]

April 29, 2020

Unfortunately, I sit here today at my desk, supposed to be completing work that was due yesterday, writing this short story.
I was fishing an undisclosed location and the fishing was going good as usual. We were about a combine 25-30 fish, between 2, when all of a sudden I hooked into a brick. When I mean brick, I mean I have never seen my rod bend like that in my life. I had caught a 2019 breeder (21 inch stock) last season but that was nothing like this. This fish was pulling drag and didn’t have a problem doing so. I knew it was big but I didn’t have eyes on the fish until it came full out of the water and did a dolphin dive. This fish was way bigger than my 22 inch personal record from last year. I had the fish pinned for roughly 5 minutes, pulling it the to the rocky, branchy edge that we were fishing on, every time it pulling my 4 lb line out into the current with a simple head turn. The shear girth of this fish was unbelievable and it had surfaced several times after its initial jump. After seeing this fish nearly 6 times, I estimate that it was roughly 25-26 inches. Here comes the sad part. Fishing in this smaller stream setting we did not expect to catch larger fish so our nets were simply much too small Simply for an 18 inch fish. There were 2 times that we had the fish close enough to the bank to have a chance to get a net on her but the ledges proved to be too distant to the waters surface to manure the large fish. On the 3rd approach to the bank, the fish was tired and had much less energy, but did one head shake were it popped the hook straight out. No bent hook or line fray so I know my drag was perfect but I must have just caught a small tab of his mouth that ripped upon extreme stress. I was/currently am devastated by the event but realize that it is simply a calling for me to go back and catch it for real this time, get photos, and tell my kids I pulled out a nearly 30 inch trout in a river that you can barley swim in.
I hope this sparks that inner rush that everybody knows they’ve felt at one time in their life, and pushes a few of you to get out more.