Hoped to go fishing on my 40th birthday, but the battery in my truck was dead--I left the dome light on while I was away in San Diego over the previous week. This was the first time I had the chance to start it up, and I certainly wasn't going out of town to wet my line. The tires on my mtn bike were full, so there was still Greenlake. Arrived at the fishing pier at the foot of 65th St., on the East-side of the lake. The weather was in the 50's, so I figured the fish were likely to be more active than a Popsicle. At the dock was some Russian guy who couldn't speak English. He just shrugged his shoulders when I asked him if he had any luck. "I do not know English so very well," he says. While I rigged up, the little bell at the tip of his rod starts ringing. He drags in some kind of carp. Maybe about two pounds. He's got this stout rod with a chunk of lead big enough to kill anything it might land on and a couple of hooks with short leaders coming off the main line!
. The hooks look like they have something like wet cotton balls hanging off of them. So like, he's all nervous because he doesn't have a net, so I offer him my services with my shorty trout dipper. He's all happy and demonstrates that he at least knows how to say thank you in English. Some kids later come by to check things out, and the fish starts flipping around in the guy's plastic bag. They check it out. Meanwhile, I've been having a lousy time with my gear. Using my spiffy fly rod, I'm concerned with snagging tree and tailing loops--not to mention oblivious passer bys who never heard of back casts. I end up casting toward shore and turning around for the cast outward. Using a sink-tip line, I eventually draw a hit as I'm pulling my line up vertical. There are fish underfoot! Yes, structure! I end up pulling up a rainbow of about 15 inches. I'm bummed because I forgot my camera. This one was quite chubby, BUT...
If anyone of you out there in cyberland made it to the Sportsman's Expo and checked out the Supertanker, you might

...recall how those fish looked like. Kind of beat-up around the fins. Well, this rainbow looked like a renegade from that Expo with its missing dorsal fin and other signs of damage. Out of sympathy for the poor thing, I let it go despite the offer of 45 cents from the kids who were checking out the carp. I suppose my sympathy arose because I felt that both the fish and myself shared a rather thrashed past year. Welcome to another new year."

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