Had a funny thing happen the other night...

It was just about 12 at night and before bed I figured I would go down to the bank and make a few casts. Grayling and small rainbows had been rising all evening and I wanted to see if I could catch enough grayling for tonight's dinner. After 4 or 5 casts I walked up to the mouth of the little slough and made one bommer cast straight down the slough. This cast was so beautiful it looked like a Tiger Woods tee shot on a par 5,(I will leave out the part where my first cast landed in the weeds). Sometimes your cast exceeds even your own expectations and I tensed with anticipation as I slowly reeled my mepps #4 just inches from the weed line. I started running through my head what I would do if or when a pike showed up and before I could finish that thought a huge 3 foot pike engulfed my spinner. I quickly jerked the rod to set the hook but realized I was going to get sawed off with my 12# test on the pikes sharp teeth if I pulled too hard. Somewhere in all the splashing the pike hooked himself and shot out of the slough and headed out in the current. He swam down river and before I could run down the bank my line had wrapped around the post I put in for the water filter. For the next 10 minutes I tried everything possible including yelling to Ryan for help, nothing worked. With no waders on, my last resort was to strip down to my underwear and wade out to clear the line. With the rod in one hand I started taking my clothes off faster than a teenager at prom night. I jumped in the water and several freezing minutes later had a huge pike laying on the fillet table. Yeah Baby!!!