Pounds duckster! This season I have caught 2 fish of a lifetime from the stillwater ponds at my trout club. Ihave caught trout there up to 7 pounds in the past but these two fish this year were real hogs. Both spanned the opening in my Outcast Fat Cat with head resting on one pontoon and tail on the other. 30" long with real substantial girth. Wish I had pictures to share butmy regular fishing buddy was working. Ive only gone two or three times without my friend. As luck would have it that's when I hooked up with the "hogs".

"if some are hammering it the way you say they should be hooking themselves"

That is what is so frustrating! I'm going to try and discipline myself to strip strike. It won't be easy as I've spent a lot of years fishing for warmwater species with spinning and baitcasting gear. Even though I'm an experienced flyfisherman my reflex reaction when they hit that hard is to attempt to set the hook with the rod.

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"...whatever is true,whatever is noble,whatever is right,whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."