The Old man and the Sea

I stopped on my way home for about 20 minutes the other day down at the west fork of the trinity river near Westworth . The wind was whipping good and it was just about impossible to cast the fixed quill float set at about 7 feet deep . I was wanting to ketch a fish or 2 and it just wasn't happening . the cross wind made for a fast drift that isn't good for crappie most of the time and it was just about impossible to get a presentation the way I wanted it and knew I needed .
So I was about done and hadn't even had a peck and my float is going by a bridge column pretty fast with me just a twitching it bigtime . you see river fish love a dancer and by that I mean a really jumping up and down jig . but to be sure it isn't really good if it is moving across the water with much speed .well low and behold I get a slight peck and the float leans a bit just for a split second . I drive it home like you cant possibly imagine on the hookset unless you go with me .
the medium action 8 footer arches hard and the shimano gives a little drag . I crank it fast as long range crappie have a tendency to get off if you don't apply real steady pressure and get them out of the water fast .fish feels pretty heavy but isn't fighting especially hard , I see it at about 15 foot out and say to myself oh my there it is .....
so at about 10 feet out the speed I am moving the fish speeds up and I get ready to run it up on the rocks under the bridge , I knew it wasn't going to get high enough out of the water due to its size to clear the surface much on the heave . so here we go, I swing sideways hard and try to beach it and it hits a rock and on the turn I step on a lose rock .we all go tumbling up the rocks and one real old crappie and one kinda old man come up with not much in the way of injuries....take a photo or 2 and let that old man swim on .I would venture to say that fish does not have a many seasons left in it and to think as a fry he survived the torrents of flooding a couple years ago made me admire him and his poor shredded up appearance .
mind you I am guessing it was a male fish due its build and it was real long . I would guess it to weigh in the 1.5 range maybe ,at a little over the 15 inch mark
that's my story and hope you have a great weekend