I was all alone on this fishing trip, and if my struggles were the standard, I can understand why. It took over an hour to hook into my first fish. Another 20 minutes for the second, and over an hour and a half for the third. However, by the end, I found the combo that proved most successful. With a real red worm threaded onto a trout magnet jighead and a slow retrieve, I caught three more fish in the time it took me to catch the first.

I headed to the ice fishing pond that I've visited in past episodes. It's too early for ice, but since it has been recently stocked, I thought I'd see how the fishing is before the frigid temps arrive. The amount of vegetation was unfortunate, and made finding a spot a little more difficult, especially when sharing the dock with others. We all made it work, and everyone caught some fish. My favorite catch, though, was the last one. There is something truly special when you get to see fishing through the eyes of children. "Be free, buddy."

Back at the neighborhood stocked pond. Shout-out to everyone who has struggled to get that hookset. I was struggling this trip. The first three hookset attempts failed, and it was discouraging. It took several hits before I was able to secure the hookset and start catching some great trout. I still missed some hooksets, but I was able to work through it enough to finally catch some good fish.

With the falling leaves comes the restocking of the rainbow trout in our local ponds and waterways. I was thrilled to see that it finally happened after the first scheduled stocking came and went without any trout being deployed to our ponds. It was wonderful to finally catch some trout again.