40+ pound trout

[davetclown]

[center]3 thirty-inch carp[/center] [center]12 pounds apiece[/center] [center]Forth of July 2003[/center] [center]Kent Lake Milford MI[/center] [center]At sun down[/center] [center]Well the day started out with a horrible rumble and 70 mile an hour winds. I awoke just in time to get the truck loaded when the wind hit and minutes after the wind the thundering and lightning and some light rain accompanying the torrential winds.[/center] [center]Kevin and I hooked up about 1.30 and headed out to Kensington park for some fancy carp fishing and watch the fire works, we arrived at the park about 2.30 after several store stops along the way. Pulling in our hearts sank when we found that the fire works would not be going off till Sunday. We were already there, so we ventured on in only to find our fishing hole closed of to those of us who don’t have sailboats. We ventured around the lake in an attempt to find a fishing spot. And it seemed that all my favorite holes were taken. We did manage to find an empty picnic table near the lake, so we opted for that.[/center] [center]We managed to get our lines in about 3.30 we sat there for a couple hours with out a bite. The problem we were having was all the paddleboat, kayaks, canoe and rowboat traffic. Not to mention the kids wading in a no swimming area. Tolerating the situation, we pulled out the small gear to mess around a bit to see if there was any thing else in the water.[/center] [center]Immediately I started pulling in stunted gills of various types. Kevin was not having much luck. I saw he was getting hits, but being the first time fishing for him in years, another fishing trip or two I am sure he will start hauling them in like a pro. This did not help the situation much in that he was getting frustrated with me for catching the stunted gills and he was not having any luck.[/center] [center]by about sundown I had managed to catch about 15 six inch gills and threw them back in to the drink. The wind that was maintaining a 20-mile an hour pace started to lie down. I switched from red worm to a rooster tail in hopes that I would catch a bass or two before I ran out of light.[/center] [center]About 6 casts with the rooster tail I saw what appeared to be dorsal fins sticking above the waters crest about 30 feet out from shore. I eminently switched back to the big guns and with in seconds I had hooked in to my first freight train. It took me about 10 minutes to land him after he had made 7 runs at which time I had drawn in a crowd of spectators, at a glance I would say there was about 40 on lookers cheering and clapping seeing a Big Fish Landed. They all gathered around to get a close up look at the big orange monsters, the young kids about 7 and younger got up real close and wanted to touch the slimy critter.[/center] [center]Eminently after putting him on the stringer I got right back out on the water on got my line in, Kevin had to baby sit the table because he was afraid that some one might liberate us of our gear as the onlookers was still hanging around to see if I was going to hook in to another one real soon. the next train took off ten minutes later, he was landed in about 7 minutes. More onlookers came around to see this haul. [/center] [center]I dropped my line back in and waited about 5 minutes for the third freight train. About 5 minutes in to the battle of this one the park ranger came around and gave his first warning for every one to vacate the park. Announcing that any one still in the park after 10.pm would be ticketed. It took another 5 minutes to get this one landed when he gave his second warning, Kevin was scurrying to get every thing loaded while I was bring in the last fish. We barely got in to the truck and moving when we were tailed out of the park. (Being we were one of the last people out, even park workers wanted to go home while there was still a little 4th of July party time left.)[/center] [center]My terminal hook up was 20-pound test Trilene with a 10 pound test maximum. As for the bait, I will never tell. (A Juicy worm lol)[/center] [center]The rod of choice is the Big Fish Classic 30# trolling rod available at the BFT Gift Shop here at this site.[/center] [center]I fished on the bottom of the lake.[/center] [center]
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