SKUNDED ! Ketchn at 8,000 ft. ....er so .....

[Ketchn]

Tis a long story fur shur ,
We took a ride out west of us and hit the national forest in Colorado.
Now let me just say this about that , NO crappie were located ......
But to say it was a splendid mini vacation , would be an understatement.
I did pitch a crappie jig some under a pencil float , the same way I short water ketch crappie .....
Even Big Rainbow trout can be ketched with ORANGE ,,,,just saying ..
Was a mind bending brutal whipdown all 3 days ....took a microlite set up 7 foot long with clear 4 lb. mono on it ....
The reel supporting said mono was a Tiny deadbolt
The rod was a very light long 7 ft. Quantum ........
Maybe if ....I had a net I would have ONLY lost about half my crappie jigs in my jig box ....
The sign said to be gentle ketchn with the fish and release them immediately ...
Artificial baits only and , if you cheated you would be asked to leave !
I did in fact get WHOOPED by their gentle fish in that alpine pond SO bad it
wasn't EVEN funny ....
seemed to be most of the fish were in the real nice rainbow to monster rainbow range in the spot we visited , the fish over 20 inches mostly escaped me ....
one evening late a large one came to shore with me ...
seemed to me average fish in there were around 18 inches and thick .
measured one that seemed large to me at one point and it was close to 19 inches .
Discovered things about rainbows I never knew, saw more than one chase my long pencil float on the surface AND strike at it too !
Had one that was past large a mile , like the largest male hatchery trout you can imagine , had the big kiped salmon jaws going on and was LONG that SMASHED a 10 inch sucker that hit my jig ....
Knew the smaller fish hit lures ,but no clue the big ones would hit things that big.
Probably landed about 30% of what I hooked ....
the lone other thing ketchn fish with us this trip was an Osprey that watched the fiasco down below his fish ketchn perch .....
no fish seemed to be harmed during the fights , had to revive a few though, they just do not want to quit ....
it was rather cold in the morning at 8000 ft ....and midday was gentle ...
them darn rainbows were JUST brutal ....not kidding ,,,salmon quality fights
got to see some BIG air and hear my drag screaming a bit too much , REALLY don't get much better
unless she brings you coffee while your getting a morning beat down from the trout ,right out the front door of the lodge .....
AND KIDDO AND DOGGY SUPER FRIENDLY TOO !
KABOOM is the word ...
p.s. the wife got her you know what whipped SO fast her video was 5 seconds long !
and some ketchn trout smort clips are on my YouTube channel if you interested ...