Noah's Fishing Extravaganza

So the lucky boy got to get away from home for a few days.  He packed his bag and fishing gear and headed south to Gardiner to stay with his grandparents for about a week.  His Grandpa had a week of fishing trips all planned out.  They stopped at a few sporting good stores on their way out of town to stock up on tackle and off they went.  Noah was a machine...as usually.  He will fish from sunrise to sunset.  He was actually a bit peeved about Yellowstone Park's rule about not fishing after sundown.

Noah's first destination was Joffe Lake.  This beautiful lake lies in the northern part of the park near Mammoth Hot Springs.  It is filled with eager brookies and is a popular place to take children.  I was pleased to hear that Noah took many of his brookies on a fly.  He rigged a clear casting bobber to a spinning rod and drifted a Joe's Hopper to nail his limit of brook trout.  He returned to the lake several evenings and filled our freezer with very tasty brook trout.  

So if Noahs trip was a movie, Joffe is a romantic comedy.  Pretty easy going, but predictable.  Now for the epic...enter Yellowstone Lake.  The huge and vast body of water is intimidating to even the most seasoned anglers and the fish get BIG!  This was not your kiddy brooke trout pond, this is one of the largest freshwater lakes in America!  Noah fished hard all day with no luck.  He watched as several very large yellowstone cutthroats narrowly escaped capture through violent head shakes and the snapping of fishing lines.  Finally he struck pay dirt.  He landed a whopper.  A pig of a cutty.  He couldn't hold it with his hands so he just hugged it like a load of firewood.  The fish well surpasses the width of his shoulders and almost as big around as it was long.  Every bit of 4 pounds, this fish is offically Noah's biggest of his life (and I hate to say, bigger than anything I have caught in a long time!)

The boy couldn't have been more proud of himself.  He called me and talked and talked...and talked.  He was fired up and I was so happy for him and thankful that his Grandpa gave him that wonderful experience.  It will be hard for me to match.