My friend called me around 3:30 P.M. asking if I wanted to go fishing at Lake Ballinger on his boat. Not being of sound mind or body I said "Sure but I got to go get worms first" which was way better than the last fishing trip where I said "I've got worms." and he replied "You know they have meds to take care of that problem..."

I got to the lake shortly after 4 and as usual my friend was waiting for me. We started trolling along the north side near the golf course and we couldn't buy a hit. As we started past the backside of the island my rod is hit hard. I realize we are trolling with pop gear so all hits seem bigger than they really are but my rod went down hard and wasn't coming back up. I got to play with the fish for maybe a half minute when the 4lb leader busts.

Reload with new hook, Chartreuse Power Egg, and worm. Put line out and we start yapping about how crappy we are at Ling Cod fishing and how my friends Salmon card hasn't looked any different in years, suddenly we have action on the rods but we both lose fish. We repeat this twice more before I land my first fish. Fish is returned to the water to be caught another day. Friend lands his first fish of the afternoon. We spent most of our time on the south side of the lake each having a good number of hits, more hits than landings, but in the end we each limited out.

No photos were taken during this trip due to risk of possibly dumping cell phone into the lake. The lake already owns a pair of my pliers and a knife didn't want to add a smart phone to the list. Explaining to my wife about why I wasn't able to call her back later wouldn't have been fun either.

No fish were killed in this expedition except the one the Eagle hijacked after release. Some of the fish are starting to have bacteria/skin growths (usual routine on this lake at this time of year).

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