I LOVE fishing but I am still a beginner, as I only started in the summer of 2017. I immigrated from Germany 6 years ago and had never even thought about fishing my entire life but that summer my co-worker lend me her fishing rod, showed me how to tie the hook at the end and off I went to unsuccessfully fish the entire summer :') However I kept trying and started to catch a fish or two with the biggest one being around 2 lbs. Last summer, in May 2019, I fished at Blue Lake where I had tried many times before but would usually only catch the not so desired pike minnows. That day, I through out the line and it got caught on something at the bottom so I pulled and pulled until my first ever fishing rod finally broke - and not just at the tip, no right in the middle :'( So I reeled it all in and took off the now hanging upper rod part and just though I will keep trying because I thought a true fisher woman should not be stopped by a broken rod. And so after a while, I got a bite and started reeling in. It didnt feel much at all, no jumping, no real resistance and so I thought, oh dear, another one of the not-so-popular fish but then, when the fish came closer, my heart almost stopped! It was HUGE!! (at least compared to all the fish I had ever caught in my life) I got my net ready and started yelling at my husband that I needed help because I was terrified that the rainbow was too big for my net and if it would move a lot on the dock before I could kill it, I would lose it and that would be the saddest day in my fishing life! So while screaming for him to come and help and jumping up and down from excitement, I did manage to get him into the net and on the dock where then I could secure him safely and quickly bonk and kill him to not make him suffer! HE WAS HUGE!! I was so excited and kept yelling and jumping and holding him up to show to my husband and in that moment, I was the proudest fisherwoman there ever was :') I weight him and he was 5lbs, which to this day is my absolute record! I have never gotten any other rainbow even remotely close out of Blue Lake or that matter any other lake after that but I am hopeful for my fishing future and will always remember this fantastic adventure when I caught this big fish with my broken rod (which I of cause still have and use because I consider it a lucky one)! :')