I apologize for a bit of a crappy photo, but he was a very active fish and also in the process of breaking my swivel, which did get him off the hook and really flopping around, so I just got a quick picture and got him back in the water. Beautiful fish!
As a bit of backstory, I moved to Montana from Alaska almost 2 years ago, and hadn't gone fishing here at all because I was either busy with school, busy with life, and just wasn't thinking much about it (which is a travesty because fishing is my favorite thing to do.) I finally got my fishing license today, and immediately broke out a rod and headed to the local duck pond (Sacajawea Park Lagoon in Livingston, MT) to get a line in the water. Cue reel tangles galore, which I was able to fix but plagued the entire trip (will bring split shots next time), but in the midst of this I caught this healthy 17 or so inch Yellowstone cutthroat as my first Montana fish! It was a bit of a sign that he got off the hook by breaking my swivel, because he was the only fish I got through more tangles, retying line, and overall the issues that come with using a rod that hadn't been touched in 2 years, as well as having not fished a lure in quite a while either. Overall, great to get back out and fish again, and I'm definitely ready to make up for lost time!
Posted by alaskanangler