Re-touched photo by Tim Schoenborn.......
...since I already had a fish, this time I paddled while Tim was the shooter. Gary was gonna hang around shore by a little pool where carp were known to loaf around.
The sun was high and visiblity was better now for the canoe. Wasn't long before Tim had a couple shots,but didn't connect. These weren't easy shots at all, tough at best.
Then we saw a tailing fish and did all we could to back up the canoe and float over toward it. As we aproached the area we'd seen it Timmy drew and shot in a flash and his arrow was streaking away!
We could tell the shot was forward in the fish,just behind the lips. But before we could get another arrow into it, it pulled free. Tim wasn't happy
So we headed back upstream toward where we started for our last try. We saw a few and spooked a few,and we were running out of water.
Then Tim had an arrow out of the bow and into a fish before I could blink! He'd made a great shot on a fleeing fish and we could see his arrow had good penetration, in a good spot. This fish was up to the challenge,with some amazing runs! Tim had to bail,fall out of the canoe to get in the water to fight this one. After a very noble battle Tim brought the 12#'er to shore. It was very cool to be there to be witness it all.......
That was two down,now we just had to hope Gary had had some action.......He'd seen us shoot and out of nowhere he showed up on the shoreline. He figured "we needed someone that knew what they were doing down here"....We had a good laugh at that one!
The all nonchalant he mentioned something about a fish he'd shot at....we instantly lit up waiting for the story....He'd had a shot and the fish took off upsteam with his arrow and got off somehow(maybe he'll come on with more detail).
So we went from thinking we'd have our 3'fer picture...to now being a little bad for Gary's fish getting off....then he finishes the story.
Apparently a little while later while Gary waited in the same spot, here came his fish,not doing well at all from his shot, rolling/swimming down toward him. Another well placed shot and he had his fish...what are the chances of that!!
We'd done it...we were finally three for three!!
I was there to witness Tim's fish first hand, and got to hear Gary tell his amazing story!
Just want to take the time now to publicly thank Gary and Tim for filling my summer with some unforgettable memories. I look forward to many more...Thank You