52Ancestors52Weeks Week 50 Theme: Lines.....The Story Behind Bob and Skip Hansen's Big Catch on a 4 Pound Test Line

 

Robley (Uncle Bob) Hansen proudly displaying his "Big Catch" as captioned by Alma Hansen around 1951-2.  From the Bob Hansen Family Album.  Reno, Nevada. 

Bob and Skip Hansen holding their German Brown caught in the Truckee River, Reno, Nevada (from the Bob Hansen Family Album). 

 "The Big Catch"

  The theme for this week is Lines.......Family lines? Telephone lines? Railway lines? Fishing lines?.....This story had been floating around in my mind all summer waiting for its turn to be written down.   The theme for this week's writing challenge was the perfect opportunity to finally  get it down on paper.  Or in this case, on the blog... My husband and I had been helping Cousin Skip clean out his garage this last summer.  One of the first things we came across was "The Fish".  I also came across Uncle Bob's family album which Skip shared with me.  In the album were the pictures that were taken by Aunt Alma after the big event.  There were no dates written on the photos, but they were taken after Skip finished Junior High which was either in 1951 or 52.  Skip also pulled out the newspaper article from his wallet, where he has kept it all these years, and shared with me also.   Here is Skip and his Dad's Fish Story!  

The Fish

 Skip wrote....."Many years ago, when I was finishing up my Junior High schooling, Dad and I went to our usual fishing spot up the Truckee (River) a bit.  Dad had a nice bamboo fly rod, 4 lbs test line and 2 lbs test nylon leader.  He hooked a beautiful brown that he didn't want to loose.  Dad kept pressure on the line to hopefully keep the eagle hook from getting tossed off by the fish.  He fought for a little over an hour.  He finally got it close enough and tired enough so that I could net it.  It was too big for the net.  It started to flip back into the river.  Dad leapt down off the higher embankment cranking his Shakespeare reel madly.  We got the fish!  He entered it into the Sportman Contest; it weighed about 10 lbs, I think more, but that's close enough.  Another fisherman weighed in a catch at a lb. more.  Dad's dried out a bit while we continued to fish.  No bites!  I think the struggle scared the rest away.  Dad's would have outweighed the other had we stopped fishing immediately and taken it in to weigh and register. I was rewarded by getting to clean it after we weighed in at Crystal Springs.  Dad did the taxidermy.  It hung on the wall at the Sportman for several years.  When they closed we had a bit of a problem retrieving it.  Good memory!" 

  It now proudly resides in the garage, mounted on a piece of driftwood.  

  Here is the newspaper article from the Reno Gazette Journal (date unknown) that Skip kept in his wallet.  As you can see, some details are a little different, but it is,  after all, a fish story! 

   

  The Sportman store was located at the corner of 4th and Vine for many years and was owned by the Piazzo brothers Chet and Link.  They opened the original store in 1938.  The brothers sold their interest in the store in 2000 and it is no longer in business.  (Reno Gazette Journal April 12, 2000).  I remember shopping there a few times in the 90's; Uncle Bob's prize fish was up on the wall somewhere!

Chet and Link Piazzo, Reno Gazette Journal

 

The beautiful Truckee River in the summer,  courtesy of the Water Education Foundation.