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ROCKBRIDGE FISHING RETREAT 2009 FISHING STORY by Stan Bower
By the late afternoon, Jim and I had just caught two or three 1.5 lb. rainbow trout at Rockbridge, home of CBMC’s 2nd Annual Fishin’ Weekend Getaway for men. The stream was running its course with two anglers just hoping and waiting to get their wet fly hooks into the soft mouth of a 3 to 4 pounder. Earlier in the morning, these two anglers had caught 9 and 7 rainbows a piece to capture the morning bragging rights for number and largest fish. I had secured a 3.88 lb trout which was the biggest of the morning - this would ensure the bragging rights for the entire weekend here in Rockbridge, MO. The water was a cold 42 degrees with blue skies and the trees were all greened up from the early spring, with a gentle wind at times causing slight ripples on the water. These ripples were just enough to help hide the “line” from the big boys lying in the deep 5-foot crystal clear, spring-fed water.
 Stan Bower and Tony Kalinowski (Organizer)
Jim, the more experienced of the two anglers, was just unwrapping his line from the third tree branch he caught that afternoon and was adjusting the line and his woolly bugger. All at once my line was hit by a big bite and immediately the line started reeling out of the reel at lightning speed! The sound of the buzzing reel filled my ears and the stream. Jim jerked his head up and said, “Stan - This could be the lunker!” Within two seconds, the line and fish were heading west as fast as the fish could swim. My pole was swaggering from side to side and before you know it, I hollered at Jim - “Jim, I am out of line! I have this white line showing up? What do I do?” Jim calls out, “Stan, that is just the backer line. Don’t worry…move toward the fish and reel him in!”
So I began reeling in my 50 yards of lime-colored fishing line with the crank and Jim yells, “No, Stan - strip it in!.” My pole was swaying back and forth; the fish was 50 yards upstream from me. It was jumping and thrashing in the water and then the line went slack!
“Jim - I lost him!” I yelled. Jim returned, “Stan, no you have not. Just keep the line taut and strip the line in!” So I started stripping as fast as I could -- the line became taut as the fish started heading downstream. I stripped the line by placing a portion of it in my mouth to keep the line taut and grabbed the bright lime-green line with my left hand and pulled it in. I was doing this in a repeated fashion as fast as I could! The fish was still coming downstream and angling away from us swimming back to the deep pool. Then he started moving back and forth and away from us. Jim was coaching me every which way but loose. Man, was this fun! It was going so fast - I was excited, happy and I just did not want to lose this puppy, no matter what size it was.
Seconds turned into minutes and the novice fly fisherman was attempting to land the biggest trout of his life! That trout continued to go back and forth and spin away from us. He seemed to be getting tired, but attempting to get him into the net was a whole different case. With my right hand, I held my rod (which was given to me by my brother, Jan, who is a great fisherman from Dillon, Colorado) away from my body and stretched with my left and the net ….Ohh! missed him again! So close! He just spun away again, I dropped the net and stripped him in again. By this time I had close to 40 yards of lime-colored fishing line all in the water running downstream from me. What if the fish got caught in all of this? Man, what was I going to do?
In just a few more seconds, which seemed like minutes, with one big swipe of net under the water, in slid the fish! Man, he looked gigantic! Wow! A great-looking fish was finally in my net.
Now you can look at the pics! I just want you to see “one” result of the 2nd Annual Fishin’ Weekend Getaway at Rockbridge in May of 2009. A lunker caught by yours truly…..over 5 lbs and 23 inches in length. Yes, on a wet fly and an assist by Jim Matush.
Next year I hope you all come and participate in the fishing.
Stan
 Stan, Dr David Knight and Jim Matush  Rob Short and Jim Matush  Bob (Tim Buechel)  Dr. David Knight  Bob (Tim Buechel) Jay Peters, Stan Bower and Rob Short  Cabin Shot with Stan Tony Kalinowski and Jim Matush 
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