My friend and I decided to hit Tanwax to try for the recent plant of trout. We got there a little after 7am and fished off the dock until Rainbow resort opened. After about an hour with power eggs 3 feet off the bottom, my friend hooked a good size fish and got it to the dock. I tried to net it but it was pulling hard and looked to be about 15 inches. Before I could net it, his knot failed at the hook and it swam back to the deep. Shortly after that, they opened and we hopped in a boat. The owner said that with the cold water, trolling was not very effective and most people had been catching in front of the resort and near the boat launch, so we just anchored out in front of the resort and used the same method.

After about an hour, my friend hooked another one but this time we landed it. It was a 14.5 inch chunky rainbow. Right as he was about to put it in the cooler we heard a yell for help. There was only one other boater out there, an older guy in a canoe, and he was in the water! We were about 200 yards away but jumped into action, my friend pulled anchor and we headed for him at full speed, which was painstakingly slow with an electric motor. As we approached he said he has a heart problem and had passed out while pulling up his anchor and fell in. The water was 46 degrees and the air temp was about 42 degrees, so we worked as fast as we could to get him to land. Thankfully we were only about 100 yards from the boat launch. He took a nitro when he got out of the water and his face immediately gained color. He backed his car down and cranked the heater. He was mobile and doing okay when we left him and apparently he lived fairly close but we don't know what happened after he left.

We went back to our spot and fished for another hour and I caught a 14 inch chunky trout and then called it a day to be back in time for the Seahawks game. On this weekend of thanksgiving, I'm thankful that we were there and able to save a life. I'm also glad he was wearing his life jacket, otherwise he may not have survived. The last thing he said to us as we left was, "do I owe you guys anything?"....umm...no sir, just glad we could help.

Be safe out there!

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