Here is the picture of the frozen fish from the freezer. he has shrunk a little in the freezing process but measures in at 18 inches frozen.

this was my previous post...

Dropped by the lake for a few hours of relaxation to let the traffic clear out. Turned out to be a day only heard in folk lore. A young family showed up with two young kids, 3 and 5. His mom asked me if I could I help tie up their 5 year old sons 2.5' barbie kids pole they just bought. I happily tied up the pole for the kid and showed him how to cast with just the weight and told to practice while I put a worm on his hook. he was casting a good 7' and he was off. he then set his pole on the rail like everyone else for a minute before casting again and again. by the time I had him setup the younger sister had managed to jam the tip of her new star wars pole in the dock and broke the tip off. I recommended the parents pickup a used one at value village and swap out the reels or have the tip replaced.

So about 15 minutes later the parents were trying to talk their son into leaving when he said I was caught on something. When I turned around I expected his line to be straight down in the weeds, but when I followed his line from the tip of his pole it was way out in the middle of the lake and was moving. I set the drag pretty good and the boy and his mom took turns reeling it in. The fish started taking more line and we all knew he had something good. After a good 5 minute plus battle they finally got the trout to the dock it was huge. When I netted the fish it instantly spit the hook but it was to late for the fish. The trout was about 20" long, fat and probably 4-5 lbs holdover. The fish was half as tall the kid and he proudly marched it around the dock showing it to everyone for at several minutes. The mom said she did not know how to clean or or cook it. I offered to clean the fish for them but the mom offered the fish to me. I had their son help me put it on the stringer and put it on the lake and he said "goodbye fish" and they left bouncing with joy. Another fisherman told him he was our hero and it was true! This will be a life long "remember when" story for him. I tried to revive the fish for several minutes to let release and let it get bigger but he had sucked up too much air.

I left my phone in the car so I have no picture to post. When I cleaned the fish I found he had at least a dozen full size night crawlers, 10 power eggs and the remains of two 6 inch fish in his stomach. I rated this day a 5 even though I only got one good bite and did not see anyone else catch any fish when I was there. So glad I could help a kid have a great fishing memory. Reminds me of when my youngest son was 3.5 yrs old and caught a 18" rock fish at the Edmond's pier back in 2008.

If someone who was there and took a picture of him with his fish please post it as another report. Tight lines.

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