.....now that I have the pics to go with it , here goes the report... the day before thanksgiving me and my buddy headed up to silverwood for a little more of the schoolie stripe action I had been gettin into lately and a couple of really nice LM! So we loaded the little alumi’(9ft aluminum flat bottom) and the minkota and we were off..got to the lake about 730am.jumped out of the truck and that COLD morning air hit your face..buuurr! I could see some clouds off in the distance that looked like the could be holdin some rain.. Good FISH condtionsnot to good for fisherman that left there thermals and other 7 layers at home (ha!) but we werent gonna let a couple of thunder heads scare us so dumped the alumi’ in and went huntin! Cruised around the arm a bit.. I went right to work with some little swimbaits I’ve been gettin bit on. and I threw a new yozuri crank(kind of like a TDX minnow)..nothin!...went on like this for the first 1.5 hrs so I make my way back to my little hole its been on at. pull up on it about the 3rd cast BINGO! My rod goes bendo and the drag on the SS is screamin! FISH ON! My buddies trippin! he hasent tanggled with these fiesty stripes in awhile and on 4lb it makes it all the more better.. Couple of good runs and I lip a nice 4lb stripper ..NICE ONE! Back he goes... dozen more casts for nothin... so we move up a little in search of a school or something.. Still nothin so 20 min goes by and were sittin there and out of no were comes "You boys catch any thing!?" and I turn around theres a warden standing their! I said "just one but I threw him back, little stripper"he replyed with "you guys have your licences" "YES SIR" "could you hold em up for me !" " NO PROBLEM" A quick flash of our licence and it was "you boys have a nice day"and "YOU do the same!" Back to fishin..pick up the yozuri whip it out there im watchin him walk away i get about 8 cranks on that sucker and something hammers this thing! WHAM! Im on.. starts bulldoggin real good but by this time I can tell this anit no stripper, get him up next to the boat..nice solid largemouth.. pushin 4lbs. And when i say solid im mean it these LM are healthy chuncks!.. quick pic back he goes..so the days not a bust anyway, but its not the steady chew I had got into the week before so we cruised to another little cove up the way..my buddy is throwin a rapala gettin a couple bumps then finally hooks something.. its little, im thinkin tiny LM.... no Trout! I said WHAT! Yeah it’s a trout .. No way .. Bout that time I look up and catch jumbo size swirl out of the cornor of my eye... holy $#IT! You anit gotta tell me twice .. I dive for my box of trout plugs tie one on as fast as I can. By this time my buddy already caught another trout on this bass size rapala so I know were in the school of lunch! But he don’t really know that... so about 4th cast with the plug and I mean I get SMASHED! my rod doubles over! This thing takes off and I mean is rippin!!took 45 yrds in what seemed like seconds and then POP! (talk about freight train!!) Im sittin there in total shock..my buddy says "Oh $#it!what was that" I reel up the line after sitting there for a minute and can see my knot had failed me .F#@$#!*!#@.. in all the hustle I guess I didnt get my knot right ..."That was one of those resident HOG stripes!"...exactly what you hunt for so long for and what we all dream of ..so I grab another plug disappointed knowing that I just blew it on a seriously BIG fish! The trout disappeared and everything looked over. I keep at it with my plug. Nothin ..a while goes by im day dreamin bout the big one that got away when my buddy gets bumped again.. Really ..so I trhrow a long one out back..I get about half my cast back then SMASH!!! rod doubles over again and im like"OH MY GOD!" it’s a big one and its haulin A$$! the same way as the first! Line is just smokin off my reel like I had never seen before and im trippin! I kick the minkota in full speed reverse to back down on him as he is gonna spool me if he keep this pace! But were out of juice!! So I tell my buddy "ROW!! Row as fast as you can bro or were gonna lose him!like now!!" As im saying this and hes startin to oar im watching my last couple wraps go down th tubes and im thinkin im done! Just as my buddys turnin on the juice this HOG starts slowing down and im putin more wraps back on my spool.. Couple more minutes and I got half my line and im turnin this bad boy and now hes tired and I got him whipped! this thing rolled up next to the boat and I couldnt believe it...first I tried to lip him like a LM and could not get a good hold on him as it was huge!. I actually had to drop my rod and grab his bottom lip with both hands! Flopped that dude over the side and I just about $hit! I had never seen one this big up close and personal so I couldnt even guess how much it weighed! My buddys going NUCKIN FUTS! It was great! The fish was 42in long and had 271/2in girth....and a whoppin 39.8lbS! Defiantly a new personal best for me!!and the highlghit of my turkey day! PHISHuntR

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