BIG FISHIE!!

So Labor day I went fishing with my dad :) It was great...we caught a total of three fish, but this is how it went down. So we got all set up, got our two chairs out and of course I grabbed a monstrous book! After a few Min's my dad went around to corner to see if they were having any luck. I was getting really into my book and really into the story when the bell started to ring...DING DING!! I immediately looked over to our neighbors to see if they were bringing in a huge honker but they were looking at me. I looked at our poles and one of them was flapping around and the tip was practically splashing in the water!! I ran down there, not really knowing what to do. I grabbed the pole, gave it a nice jerk and started reeling. This puppy was GIGANTIC and a bit of a fighter. It crossed the line of the other pole and made it jerk around and look like there were two at once. Then I see my dad sprinting from around the corner like a gazelle and close behind were the guys next door. In excited frantic movements he is yelling tips to me and looking for the net that was stuck in the door....LOL! I got it in and sadly it was a Chinook Salmon, not a keeper especially since we had an audience ;) So we watched our potential dinner swim away.....awe. Then, about an hour or so later his bell is a ringing so he runs out there, fights the stinker four about 10 or 15 Min's. The fish is jumping and fighting and dragging him from one side of the beach to the other. He gets that baby to shore and its a steelhead....YES....Oh, but it has a fin.....NOOOO! So he had to let him go to because he was a native. Then we SAT and waited forever. I think I read about a 150 pages, did 2 sudoku puzzles and peed about 5 times. We were about to call it a day when the pole started it geriatrics again. I ran down there and grabbed the pole.....THIS ONE WAS RIDICULOUSLY HUGE and a fighter too. It took what seemed like FOREVER! to reel this baby in. It seemed like just when I was making progress it would swim fast and hard away and my line would just zip and zip after it....then I was back at the beginning! The guy was jumping and whipping from side to side. I was reeling as hard as I could until my arms and wrists felt like they were going to fall off!! I got it in AND IT WAS A KEEPER!! we weighed it and my dads scale which is usually light said 20 lbs, so I like to think it was more like 22. It was really heavy holding it so I dunno. It sure made for some great dinner last night :)