Short version 5 star day! Wordy version... Only a video would do justice and I'm not writer but will try and give a full report. 10 am start. Cold and a light breeze, 3 other trailers parked. We launched with no probs and motored to the far end of the lake to blow out the 2 stroke on my friends open bass boat. COLD! Started throwing Perch Rappales to the shore working our way back, we did this a couple weeks ago with mixed success. I picked up a 15" Brown right away, then nothing for a couple hours. Fighting a head wind, we pulled up to parellel the shore in a shallow bay to get out of the wind for a break. I switched to a Perch Cast Master and threw to deeper water and my buddy Lee dropped a worm over the side toward the back. Couple casts and I was on to another Brown 16"+. Then again nothing. We moved on and back to casting to the shore while moving at a slow trolling speed with his bow mount elec. Nothing for a couple more hours and now we have fished past the dog leg in the lake and are on the launch side arm. It's still cold and breezy and only the two Browns I caught and not even a hit for Lee. The bow trolling motor has gone tits up on us. I have been running it hard against the wind. Bad plug connection was drawing too much current and melted it. Also drained one of the batteries. We fished on a ways using his outborad but it is to fast for what we were doing.
We anchored again in a shallow bay for a break. Lee dropped another worm over the side and I kept casting now trying a spinner. Couple minutes and Lee was hooked up. It didn't fight much and water was milky, so we were both surprised to see a nice big 18" brown at the boat as I netted it for him. Once Lee was back in the water, I soon netted another one for him. Now I was fishing with a worm. Tight lines back and forth, we were both catching fish. In 1/2 an hour we had 4 nice browns in the live well, 6 total. No marshmallow, just a whole worm right on the bottom. We were laughing and talking, Lee in the back, me in the front 12' away from shore and parellel to it. This is a Bass boat with no rod holders and I had laid my pole on the deck. Of course my worm was in the water. All of the sudden my out fit skids towards the edge of the boat and the reel catches on the lip or I'd have lost it. I stomped my food on the handle has all hell breaks loose. FISH ON ! Picking up my bending pole the line was wildly swinging left and right. Then this monster jumps 2 foot into the air like 20,000 volts hit it. Lee drops his pole and grabs the net as he heads towards me in the front yelling, PLAY IT! PLAY IT ! Play it hell,I'm hooked to a bull ride. It all happened in a minute. This crazy monster fish swinging back a forth and then jumps again. But this time it rainbowed over the outboat motor like a cow jumping over the moon. My line in tow, it's now trails over the back corner crossing between the motor and deck. Lee scrambles aft out of reflex but it's too late. And this huge fish is gone. Lee shouts he busted off, as I stand there on the front deck with my rod in hand, shocked. Soon we are both laughing and talking and reliving what just happened. We get my line freed and see my hook is still there but it's now at a 45 degree angle. It's one of those very thin long shaft bait hooks and this fish just about straightened it. WOW! what a fish. It was a 20 + inch rainbow.
We stayed at that spot another hour or so and caught our limit. At fish number nine we both had fish on. Lees was a big 19" Brown and mine was a 15/16"er which was released by cutting the line. Total, 7 Browns and 3 Rainbows. The Bow's jumped and fought way more than the Browns, but not like that crazy monster. We both agreed it was one of our best fishing stories in our combined 60+ yrs of fishing. Boat was on the trailer at 5 PM. What a fun day!