Cole's 1st Trout
Today was my day off, well in the morning it was. I decided that the best present I could give Cole was a fishing trip.....just me and him..........slaying trout or salmon, he had to choose, and he chose trout.
Last year when we moved to La Grande, I took the kids fishing to Morgan Lake. Tyler brought his fly rod and caught quite a few fish with it on an olive wooly bugger. Corey and Cole were really excited about trying out the fly rod and from this experience Cole started on his quest to own a fly rod and to fulfill his destiny to be the first kid, in our family, to land a steel head on his fly rod (the 27 inch buck pictured on an earlier blog).
The Morgan Lake opener didn't produce a catch for Cole on the fly rod, he missed quite a few though. In the end he landed a few for me on my new rod, the Lamiglass Classic Glass Kokanee Downrigger Rod. Say it with me Lamiglass Classic Glass Kokanee Downrigger Rod...............slower, L-a-m-i-g-l-a-s-s C-la-s-s-i-c G-l-a-s-s K-o-k-a-n-e-e D-o-w-n-r-i-g-g-e-r R-o-d, WOW!, doesn't that sound and feel great rolling off the tongue? You should try fishing it............. its like a step into the orgasmatron, as my Aunt Kerrin would say!
But I digress! To date, Cole hasn't landed a Morgan Lake trout on his Albright rod! He wanted to christen the rod, make it officially his, use it up, and wear it out on planter rainbows! This is every kids dream, and because it's Cole's dream, its a little of mine too. So, we got up at 5 AM and headed for the lake. I was the first to wish him a happy birthday today, to give him a hug, and tell him how much I love him and how happy I am I get to be his Dad! I was also the first to watch him land a bruiser trout on his 6/7 weight rod.
We saw geese, 3 bald eagles (two of which were immature), an osprey, six double crested cormorants, lots of swallows, some ducks, and trout jumping every where. The wind blew just enough to keep the bugs in Idaho and to give me a good workout rowing around the lake. We fished for about 3.5 hours to limit out--that is 5 fish a piece. Olive wasn't the color today, though, it was my brown wooly bugger, the one I've caught so many fish on in Utah. He missed quite a few, but when he got down the strip strike and started to fight fish off the line, rather than the reel, he started to hook and land fish.
As you can tell, this was his favorite birthday present of all................and the best part is, I had as much or more fun than he did!
Cole's 1st trout on his fly rod.
Fish #1 again, a better look at the "HOG"!
Fish #2..........notice how efficiently he kills the trout.....no pain.........no suffering..........just major brain damage and severe hemorrhaging! Unfortunately, this manner of killing the fish costs him his last one. You don't see it on film, but after showing it off, he tried to kill it and it flips, slipping out of his hand and back into the water, swimming off to be caught again another day..........and maybe this time, properly clubbed!
Fish #3 meets his maker after a short fight............Cole style!
Fish #4, the one that got away before we could net it!
Fish #5 was really a nice one, the second largest he caught today (see the photo at the bottom). After showing it off to the camera the fish made its escape over the edge..........it really upset Cole! But he rebounded, catching a fish on my rod, filling his limit with a fish of similar size and quality........so in the end it all worked out and he got to land a fish on dad's Lamiglass Classic Glass Kokanee Downrigger Rod.......yes, it's as sweet as it sounds!
I hope you enjoyed watching these videos of Cole as much as I enjoyed making them!
Coles 5th Trout, Houdini
