Stayed at Mardon Resort Saturday night and fished the lake Sunday from about 7am to 11:30am.

Since this was my first time fishing this lake, I did not have any high expectations. I was hoping to catch a variety of spiny rays maybe a few trout. I particularly wanted to find some small mouth and walleye (never caught an 'eye' yet). Also, I had my 2.5 year old and my 'little brother', Josh. Fortunately, the water was like glass the whole time I was there, but since I was in my canoe w\ trolling motor, I did not venture too far from the resort in case the wind snuck up on me.

Well, we decided to slow troll crawlers close to the bottom in hopes of enticing a broad range of fish to strike. We worked along the dam where it drops off from 20 to close to 50 ft. With in minutes Josh gets a hit. He sets the hook, then his eyes get wide as line starts peeling out. Then the fish makes a head shaking leap and another run. As he's bringing the fish of his life to the boat, I realize I forgot the net and the camera. Doh! Then I see the side flash of a 5 or 6lb chrome bright bow that looks bigger than many of my steelhead and my mouth drops.

After several attempts, and beads of sweat forming because I can see the hook barely attached to some flesh on the fishes jaw, I finally get my index finger in the fishes mouth and clamp down with my thumb. Fish in the boat!
Josh is beside himself, grinning ear to ear, because this 20+ inch football is the biggest trout either of us has ever caught. Since I didn't have the camera, we decided to keep the fish for pictures and for dinner (even though I've heard they don't taste very good - the fish was so strong and bright, it was hard to believe it wouldn't taste good...). FYI - we c&r 90% of the time.

Well, 15 minutes later, I catch the twin of Josh's fish. 20 minutes later, josh gets another nice hit. His 16 or so incher jumps several inches out of the water as I start cranking in my line to get out of the way. Suddenly my line stops coming in. I set the hook to a nice head shake and fish-on! We both move around the boat trying not to cross lines, and since I wasn't able to help him land it, josh's fish shook loose 5 feet from the boat. I landed mine a few minutes later. Another 20+ incher. We decide to troll back to the resort to buy some ice for our fish.

Just in front of the fishing dock near the buoys, I hook into another football stronger than all the others. I fought this fish for 10 minutes, standing in my boat - holding on for dear life as this brute drags us around a little. Just as I get the fish close enough to see, he spots the boat and rips my line out in a drag burning run straight to the bottom (about 45 feet). Several times I have to stick the rod tip way under water as the fish runs under the boat. Finally I land the fish (still no net!). It's only an inch longer and 1/2 lb heavier than the others, but what a fighter! Of course with an ultra light rod and 4lb line, even the 12 inchers I'm used to seem like great fighters...

So we get to the dock and have our pic taken by the store worker and get the fish on ice. We head back out for another hour.

In nearly he exact same spots as before, I quickly get a very fat 14 incher to the boat. Then a short while later, josh gets a nice 19incher to the boat. We decide to call it a day as we are both getting warn out and ready for lunch.

As we approach the dock again, I get one of those line stopping hits that say 'big fish on!'. I do my initial hook set (since I'm steering boat, I only have one hand on the rod), stop the motor, and get ready for a double handed hook set for good measure (ultra light rod and light stretchy line makes setting the hook harder - laser sharp gammies help too:). But before I can set the hook, my rod just about rips from my hands as the monster fish takes off. Line rips out as I drop my tip to let him run, but after about 30 ft of line rips out in record time, I get slack. Fish gone. Josh and I look at in each with wide eyes and jaws dropped. Holy cow! What a beast that must have been. We head back in ready for lunch - knowing that after 4 years of fishing together (since we joined the Big Brother program) - Josh and I just had our best outing ever. 7 fish hooked, 5 in the boat, 4 over 19inches. Well so much for variety.

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