The Hawker Squawker

Our family was sitting around the lake.  I was probably 13 or 14 at the time.  Brad was just 5 or 6.  I think it was Strawberry Reservoir.  In any event, Brad made a cast with his pole and set it down to wait for a fish to bite.  Well, bite it did!  Suddenly his pole gets yanked and falls to the ground, and quickly dissapears into the lake!  He was quite distraught over the whole affair.  What fun is fishing when a fish has stolen your fishing pole!?

Anyway, a little while later, after he’s calmed down and the rest of us are fishing again, my mom suddenly gets a huge tug on her fishing pole.  She begins reeling in her catch, and after a few moments, what does she have on the end of her pole?  Not a fish … she’s caught Brad’s pole!  He’s excited.  We’re thinking this is pretty cool.  The guy sitting next to us is talking about how unlikely the whole situation is.  

But it gets better.  Someone (I don’t think it was Brad) reels in Brads pole.  And … yes you guessed it … the fish was still on the hook!  It was huge.  A nice big fat rainbow trout.  The guy next to us was just absolutely stunned and kept saying “If I hadn’t seen it myself I’d never believe it!”