So, I go upstairs and poke Ralph (he's been sick for two weeks) and he says he don't feel like going. I see Kristen's light is on, so I stuck my head in the door and asked her if she wanted to go trolling for a little while. She said yes, and we were off.

We launched, she pulled the truck up and parked it for me, then we started putting lines out. I had both downriggers deployed and had a leadcore rod in my hand to deploy and Kristen said, look at the depth finder. WOW, black screen down deep. I immediately laid down the rod in my hand and lowered the starboard downrigger 2 more feet. I picked up the leadcore rod to start letting it out and BAM, the downrigger I had just let down got slammed. I jerked the rod out the rod holder and passed it to Kristen. The fish did not feel like much, but then all of the sudden, the fish surface way back behind the boat and made a huge swirl and drag starting screaming.

She pumped the fish and got it turned toward the boat. I started my typical big circle maneuver so she could fight the big guy off the side of the boat. She got it close and as soon as he saw the boat, he was gone again.

10 minutes later, she gets his head up and I slid the net under him.

Her personal best, 13.5lbs, 30 inches.

20 minutes later, we caught his little brother. Both fish were released to fight again.

Memories.......