First monster fish of the year.

I wen’t fishing at the Lower Tawa Pond today, and cought this big rainbow. It’s kind of hard to judge scale in the photo, but  it was about 18″ 6 lbs.  This is how it happend. I showed up and just made a nice long cast out.  Joe, a friend of mine showed up just seconds after I did,  so I stood there  talking to him not paying any attention to my foam strike indicator.  Finally when I  did look back I couldn’t find it so I yanked on it thinking it was just a normal 1/2 to 1 pounder and that is when I saw it come right up to the surface.  I finaly caught a monster fish that i’ve been wanting for.  it took me a few minutes to land him  so I had Joe help hold the rod while I went down to grab him.  That is when I noticed I hooked him in the top of the mouth with my small size 18 BH Dark Green Brassie (homemade).