Went to my dock with the boys. Ended up taking my daughter to work at hatchery Father’s Day and ran until 9pm on a quick project.
Felt like things where off at Dock. I always pull in and the owner is sitting in doorway with front door open, glass screen closed watching his tv. Never not seen him there. Stomach sank, he’s had cancer so I’ve avoided with kids being sick 5-6 weeks or more, hard to say years feel like hours lately. Saw some odd ladies at the table with kids.
Took boys to dock thinking we’d say hello when he popped up but had bad feelings. His son came in, the son’s mom watches his kids. Saw kids leave and son waved really wide grinned from his truck.
My kids caught 30+. 10 yo was on again off again from SUV reading to fishing. It’s been a bit hard the last few years. He’s 10 going on 30 and struggling with the idea of hurting or killing fish if they don’t recover with wanting to keep the big ones.
Anyway, 6 yo is all about it. He caught 3 big rainbows but a giant 27-29” red phase brown was being picky on us. All kinds of craziness with rainbows, a few tigers, and big Brookies. Let 6 yo keep the first huge rainbow. Then the second. His first tiger was a beaut but we usually don’t keep them if they don’t fail to recover or aren’t exceptional specimens.
Ended up with 2 big rainbows, 2 that failed to recover, and when kids bailed to SUV my first monster brown hit. I’d switched from 4lbs Seaguar to 10 lbs seeing how aggressive they where. Big brown circled dock then finally grabbed my bait after hours of trying. Head shaking violently he cruised past. Broke 10 lbs leader with 0!!!! Tension. Had reused a lot and probably caught in hemostats a few times. I kept checking my leader but must’ve nicked it a few times with hemos and just failed to notice at end. 32.5 hrs 30+ fish, many doubles, you get tired and sloppy I guess. Or he got lucky hitting it with a tooth but I caught 45 lbs Kings on lighter.
Still 0 on browns over 20”ish,,,,,, the son that had driven in rode back by as I was packing up. I told him I wanted to see his Dad but if he was resting I’d come back.
His Dad, my friend, died 11 days ago. I’m fishing in his yard like a insensitive idiot. He thought someone had told me about the funeral. Went to this guy’s family reunion the first year we met. Damn,,,,,,,,,,,,