A Lucky guy

My family and I were finally able to get back to my home waters in the Black Hills of South Dakota for a Thanksgiving vacation. We were lucky to have good weather and still have some good public access. My previous trout network of permission was long gone. We had to go to the old faithful holes that I used to rely on before I had wheels, in High School. Those are still some of the darkest holes with the deepest cut banks and they are right in town. Those are the holes I abandoned once I gained some fishing buddies and we set out to explore new spots away from home. On this trip my son and I were able to get out enough that he was getting the hang of where to drop his presentation. We now live in upstate New York where we get giant browns in the Great Lakes Tributaries. When we arrived in South Dakota, I bought a 14ft spin set up, 4lb Maxima, some gold Aberdeen hooks and some tiny floats. I also got small garden worms and Canadian Nite Crawlers and some nymphs. When my friends saw my set up, it didn't get a good reception. Some comments I liked were " The criks only 13 foot wide" and "make up your mind fly fish or throw a spinner." It took a few hours; but when they saw us drop a big crawler in the holes and keep it right in the boils as long as it needed to be before getting sucked in by a white mouth or float a bead head anywhere I wanted and get a fish they were convinced. This day was beautiful and on the first drop of the day my son put the float 3 feet outside the current in the slack water just like he was taught the worm floated down out of sight 6 feet down. Then on cue 5 seconds later, the float took a diagonal dive and he immediately lifted on the light action rod reeled 3 times and waited just lie he's taught. I looked up and saw the rod load up real deep. I then looked down and saw the color stretch what looked like 4 feet down in the hole. I turned his drag to the left and let him play the fish in the hole until it, had enough and swam into the current. It went by us quick on down the creek. He was able to keep the rod tip up and beach the fish 40 yards down the creek in the next hole. We measured it, took some pictures and put the fish right back it recovered and swam away. I explained to a very upset little guy that we don't keep those big ones and that we would frame a big picture and put that on the wall not the fish itself (not as cool when you are 6). I also explained that I had fished that creek almost all my life and never seen a 2 foot long trout let alone hook and land one. A very lucky guy!