Well, lately I haven't been myself and have been super stressed and on edge. I had yesterday and today off, but wasn't sure what I was going to do. Finally, I called Jason yesterday to see if he was out at Fork. He said he was about to leave, but that I could still come up. I really needed a session, but didn't feel like fishing by myself, so he ended up staying so I would go.
I got there in the late afternoon and he showed me all the new stuff he's been working on up there. I have to say that the casting deck is awesome. We set up our rods and before I could get bait on my second rod, my first rod took off.
Catfish. This happened twice before I got all three rods out.
After the sun set, I got a good run, but the fish promptly took me into a snag. Jason had a run and had the same thing happen. A few minutes after that, I got my first fish into the net, a nice little teener.
I got my rod back out and went to sit down on the bedchair, where it immediately collapsed. Jason was cracking up, and just had to take a picture.
We each had a couple of phantom runs, then Jason said he needed to go up to the house. Ok, fine. Just hurry back.
I bet he wasn't to the house yet before I got a run. Thinking catfish, I didn't yell anything out to get him back down. By the time I realized it was a carp, he was already in the house. So, I decided to go ahead and play the fish and work to get it in the net.
That's where the fun and panic began.
The fish took off to the left, between the two boathouses. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, since Jason (had he been there) could have ran downstairs to net it. The problem for me was that I was on the casting deck, and on the opposite side of the stairs. All of the sudden, the fish came up. Yep, it was a carp.
Then, I blurted out Donny's famous words...
"HOLY EFFING MIRROR!!!"
Well, now things got a little tricky. I WAS NOT going to lose this fish. I knew I had it tired, so I slowly worked it around the boathouse and to the netting area. As I was doing this, I tried to call Jason, but his phone was sitting in his chair. I knew I had to go it alone, so I took my time. By the time I got downstairs and was working to net the fish, I was shaking so bad that I could hardly hold the rod. This wasn't a little fish, either. I finally got it into the net, let out a HUGE sigh of relief, and sat there, waiting for Jason to return.
As he pulled up, I told him he needed to go grab a sack. He asked if I had a fish, and I told him I needed to take pics of it in the morning. When he returned, he couldn't believe the fish I had sitting in the net.
A two-toned, fully scaled mirror. Different from Donny's.
We speculated on weight and took a few quick pics before we weighed it and sacked it. My pb mirror is 25 lbs, 8 oz. Not bad.
I had one more carp later in the night that was a mid-teener, but that was about it. I did not fully expect the fish of a lifetime on such a last minute and short session, but you nevver know what Fork is going to cough up.
Jason, thanks for staying and letting me come out. I really needed to get out, and I'm glad you gave me that chance. I'm sorry that I dominated you with my fish, but that's how it usually goes when we fish together.
For some reason, photobucket is taking forever to load my pics. I will post more as soon as I get them uploaded, and I know Jason has a bunch to post as well.
great story and fish!!! congrats 
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