It was going to be a beautiful day last Saturday, so I invited Tom Verschueren to join me for a trip to Rufus Woods Reservoir. We have had pretty good luck fishing from the shore at Brandts Landing, and we hadn’t been there since last winter. We found our favorite fishing spot occupied so we set up just up river from there. We both had spinning rods set up with sliding sinker rigs and about a four-foot leader and a size 1 hook. The bait we prefer is a marshmallow and shrimp combo. I slide a chunk of marshmallow up to the hook eye and thread on a jarred shrimp with the head off. I always dip the bait into the water to be sure it floats and then give it a good dose of Graybill’s Guide Formula before I cast it out. While I was talking to Dave Marchaud, who monitors the fishing on Rufus Woods for the Colville Tribe, I heard a commotion. I turned and saw a fish splashing on the surface and Tom playing on my rod! This turned out to be a 17 ½ inch fish that Dave weighed and found to be 1.8 pounds. A little later we both saw Tom’s rod start bouncing and then the line go straight. The rod holder started to tip over and if Tom hadn’t run out into ankle deep water and grab the rod, he would have lost the whole rig. This fish tuned out to be 23 inches long and I figured weighed at least 5 pounds. This was the biggest trout Tom had ever caught. It was our last fish and we considered it a great day.