Took my old man out for fishing on Mother's Day (yeah a little sacrilegious, but whatever), had hit Pattison (formerly Patterson/Petterson) the week before with little luck.

Started out the day by mainly targeting trout, with hopes of also bringing home a few fat perch, gills, Crappie or rock bass (we love trout as much as the next guy, but around here these fish are so darned delicious and seriously underrated).

Started with some small curly tail grubs casting around the west bay in the lilly pad fields and had lots of chasing and strikes, but nothing in the boat (mostly trout and occasional bass). Drifted/trolled the north bank going east using a deep sunk crawler and a chartreuse jig (him/me) and had several nice strikes and one huge trout shook on a jump halfway to the boat. count so far: one perch - nuthin else.

Kept moving along the shore heading to the NE lilly pad field and my dad nails a nice 12" rainbow. Just gets the hook out of that one and I have a fish on - another 12" trout. 30 minutes go by and all is quiet.

We move back through the lilly pads following the same shoe going west and BAM! We both hook up at the same time, two trout coming in and only one net - so my dad flings the fish in the air (God knows how it landed in the canoe). Both 13/14".

Land one more each about 12" in the next 30 - countless strikes and near landings..

Go back to the big lilly pad field just to the right of the boat launch, and mention to my dad as a joke, " Hey, see that little hole in the pads about 20 feet in there? (he says, yeah), I betcha anything there's a huge fish just sitting in that hole".

So he says, "OK" and wings his line way out in the pads and it actually lands in the hole.

Shook my head at him and told him I was just kidding, and that there was no way to bring a fish back to the boat if he hooked up through that solid 20 foot patch of pads..... and his bobber disappeared!

"Reel Danggit "!!! I yelled. He started reeling like noones business - that tiny little rod (4# line and an ultralight panfish rod) was doubled over - and the fish actually kept coming toward the boat in a straight line.

It jumped, and we both stared! "Reeeellll"!! I yelled again.

After my first two unsuccessful attempts to net it (both times cracking the fish square on the top of the head), I got her on the third try.

Right around 4 lb carryover rainbow - bright, clean, and beautiful!

We both limited that day, plus two fat perch to boot.

No gills, rock bass or crappie for us, but a little kid at the boat launch had a nice fat 6lb catfish on his stringer.

Long story, but sometimes a report doesn't carry its justice.

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