it was hooked. Then it realized it was hooked and went screaming upstream at Mach 8. There was another small submerged beaver dam up there and I was worried the trout would get tangled in the beaver dam. I yelled at Joe," Turn it! Muscle it! It can't get into the other dam!" The reel on the rod was just screaming and the rod was bent in half. Joe was kind of like a deer in the headlights. He froze. He yelled, " Can't control it!" I told him to take one step into the water and invert the fly rod and stick it directly into the water. I told him to keep the rod bent over. He didn't un-derstand me. He wanted more explanation. I yelled, " Just Do It!" He followed my directions to the let-ter and the trout turned and came back downstream. Joe was reeling for all his worth. He had it in the main beaver pond again. It was showing no signs of

getting tired. It was Joe's turn to yell. " Get in the #$@*&$% water and net that fish!" I told him it wasn't ready to be netted. Joe said, " I don't care! Get in there!" I took three steps out and was at the top of my chest waders. I told Joe to get it closer to me so I could net it. The trout swam by me and I made a half-hearted netting attempt. I had not even seen the fish yet. I thought I better get a try while it was near me. I tried and I missed. Joe was screaming. " If you cause me to lose this fish I will never talk to you again!" I took one more half step out and the water was even with my waders. I told him he had to get it head up so I could see it to net it. He kind of brought it to the surface. I went deep under the fish and brought it to the surface with the netting action. The trout would not fit in the net from the side and the net got tangled up in the line. I was certain I was going to lose this fish. I dropped the net on purpose and the line came free from the net. I recovered the net. I decided I was go-ing to go in up to my neck and net this thing. I took one big step forward and went deep - almost to my neck - and made a lunging deep netting attempt at the fish. I got it in the net by sheer luck. I lifted the net over my head and walked out of the hole. I still didn't know just how big the trout was. When I got to shore I turned on my headlamp. Joe met me there, and we just stared in disbelief at what was in the net. A small- stream trout in these parts is considered big at 20 inches. This thing was way beyond that. I snapped a couple photos and we mea-sured the male brown trout with a tape measure and a digital scale Joe had brought along. It measured an eye-lash over 30 inches and it weighed 10.2 pounds. Joe Chadwick experienced this trout of a lifetime.