Back in the day, the Shuffleton power plant was located on Lake Washington, adjacent to Renton Boeing. They used to discharge warm water into the lake. As teenagers, we frequently caught largemouth bass and crappie in their discharge canal. This involved trespass and stealth, as crawling through an opening in a heavily posted fence was required. The off the charts fishing for pie plate sized crappie and 2-4 pound bass seemed worth the risk of being caught. We were never bothered by security. One evening, my dad and I were boat fishing for bass along the Shuffleton shoreline. He was casting a plug, and I was tossing a spoon into the shallows. I hooked a huge fish, and my first thought was, this is a really big BASS! My second thought was, how am I ever going to land this on my 6 foot spinning combo and 4 pound test line. For 25-30 minutes, we rowed, or were towed all over the south end of Lake Washington. It was "The Old Man and the C", and the "C" was a seventeen pound tail hooked carp.
A seventeen pound carp was the largest fish I had ever landed at that point in my life, but what does one do with such a trophy? I took it to Seattle Sporting Goods, in Renton, and asked them if they wanted to put it in their outdoor display case. A deal was struck; they got to display the fish for a day, and I would receive $1.50 worth of fishing tackle. When I went to pick up the carp, they said they had more people stop into the store to inquire about this fish, than any steelhead or salmon they had ever displayed. Most wanted to know what kind of spoon I was using...
The carp ended up buried at "C". Composted in our garden.
