Friday night fight

[Brownbagger247]

Managed to get on the ice Friday evening and start my weekend off early. Fresh coating of snow on the ice and overcast skies made everything silent. Out to the shanty to unlock, turn the heat on, and put the flag out. Silently drilled a dozen holes with our new ion and sounded them out. My buddy and I had just set our first of two traps each and I was walking to his second hole to grab the bait for my second trap (one shallow, one deep). As I reached him I noticed his shallow water flag was up, about two minutes in. I informed him he had a flag to which he replied. "shut up". Apparently we mess with each other too often to be taken seriously. He went to the hole and the reel was not moving but the line was tight. I figured it was a perch wasting one of our smelt and began to bring the bait bucket to him. As I was walking over I could see the tension on the line and the fish began making runs, hinting that it may be a bit larger than a perch. After countless runs and minutes of just solid tension on the line we figured the fish would begin to tire out however this was not the case. I few appearances at the hole to give us a general idea of the size, however all were unsuccessful attempts to get her head first.  It being so difficult to get the right movement we began to assume the fish was wrapped up in the leader. Not wanting to take the chance of reaching through 15" of ice to attempt to get a hand on him any way we could, my buddy patiently waited and worked the fish until her head came up and I reluctantly tried to get my hands around her to dump her on the ice. BOOM! LANDED! When that thing hit the ice it shook!

Barely hooked on an extremely small egg hook in the upper roof of the mouth, however she wrapped herself up in the battle which almost secured the reason she touched the ice. 4FOW on a smelt. 25" on the tape. Measured, photographed, and released clean in the black mountains. What a way to start the weekend and I wasnt even the one to catch it!

[Nitro16]

Wow what a great story and even better fish. Awesome job on the catch and release for someone to enjoy another day.  To me that's what it's all about

[DConICE]

That's a beautiful brown... great job landing and releasing it.

[jpease]

nice fish! what's with th photo shop background? spot that secret?

[OldCaveman]

What a Beautiful Brown nice way to start the weekend

[JoeGG]

Awesome fish. Those big females lay a ton of eggs. Nice job letting her go

[JIGGIN-]

Outstanding!

Great story and pics man.  That's legit.

Thanks for sharing.

[meatandmetal]

Bodacious Brown great story and thanks for the release to fight another day.

[HuntnFish603]

Wow man. That's one for the books. Great fish, great story.
Thanks for sharing.

[zwiggles]

Big ole girl! Kudos in a healthy release!

Enjoyed the story to go with it as well.

[PoolGuy]

Great story..congrats

[moosehunter]

real nice brown. you have a way with words. nice post

[Nosaj]

Nice fish!

You should get a reproduction mount of that one!

[Spoondangler]

wow thats a beaut

[SALMONEMIA]

Very nice. Good work.

[Trowder]

What a nice Brown, Great job!

[dennisg34]

nice fish! what's with th photo shop background? spot that secret?

People like to hide backgrounds in fear of "their lake" being overrun, though if this is the lake I believe it is, that lake already gets beat to poop lol

[BrookieSlayer99]

Nice brown that's one of the biggest I have seen through the ice in a while.

[Hess]

Beautiful fish -- kudos for letting her go...!!

[jethro]

Amazing catch

[salmotrutta]

Nice Brownie.Hope to see more!

[Arctic Addict]

Great fish, great story and a great release so others can someday have a similar story.  Nice work to you and your buddy.