I hiked to a VT pond today in the afternoon, with a friend who doesn't usually fish. It was more about the walk and the company, but of course I can't hike without a fishing pole

I've been skunked in this pond a half dozen times, never caught a thing there, and didn't really expect to catch anything.
We worked our way around the lake, stopping to cast wherever we could both fit on the shore. The shore wasn't easy to cast from, and it was shallow in many places. Finally we found a nice big flat rock to sit on, where the water dropped off pretty quickly. I counted 33 seconds for my 1/8 oz Phoebe to drop to the bottom. It's a gold Phoebe, and I replaced the treble hook with a #4 Owner Mosquito Light hook.
Sitting there, casting, we saw a couple fish break the surface. I cast to the second one, and BOOM fish on as soon as my lure hit water! Then it starts swimming right at me and I'm reeling as fast as I can, just to keep pressure on it. Suddenly it jumps about 3 feet up and I see it's a giant rainbow. ZZZZZZZZZ I'm fishing 6-pound test, and I'm outclassed. Lots more ZZZZZZZZZ and then it makes a quick series of 5 leaps! Holy cow. This thing just wasn't getting tired. After several more runs I almost got it in the net, but it got its head turned for one more run. Finally got it head-first into the net. Whew! That was a long fight.
24" and fat as a football! I think it's my best rainbow yet! Definitely the best fighter. I was glad for the single light hook, as the hook came right out with no injury. I didn't even take the fish out of the water, and it didn't waste any time getting out of that net when I released it. Perfect!
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.