Had a great day troutfishing today. i decided to take a break from spinner fishing andjust kick back and toss on a good ol' nightcrawler on a #8 eagle claw baitholder. Tossed it out in the small hole i was fishing didn't even get my rod propped up on a stick yet i felt tap so i got my rod ready to jerk i felt another tap so i gave it a good rip all the sudden my drag took off i thought i just had a snag and the tension set my drag off. I caught a flash and saw him trying to go upstream with my line thrashing all around i started shaking i just grabbed ahold of my drag and gave it a twist to loosen it up a lil more so i didnt snap it i was only using 6lb berkley trilene xt and a 4'8" ugly stick. I Let him swim around for about 10minutes till he tired out. Got him right up to the bank slid down the little hill 2 grab ahold of him he started thrashing again and snap my line broke he was only in about 4" of water and sliding back down in so i jumped in the creek with him man was that cold somehow i managed 2 get a grip on him i tossed him up outa the water he started sliding back down the hill so i tackled him lol and layed on him for a minute till he calmed down and i could get a finger up under the gill than i gave him a little toss to get him up on the bank. All along i knew he was big but I had no clue how big i reached in my vest pulled out a tape measure 23 1/4" beautiful rainbowby far the biggest trout i've ever caught and one of the biggest i know of ever caught out of the stream I was fishing in. So now I have a taxidermy bill this is one time im not upset about spending some money lol. He had great girth to him also i dont really know how much he weighed but i'd say he went atleast 5lb. That made this fishermans day thats for sure