Union Reservoir Fish of a Lifetime?

Went out to camp in the woods near Union and Icehouse reservoirs for the crazy rubicon trash fest. Good times. Went out at Union Saturday around 10:30, every boat I saw come in hadn't a bite. The kayak was already off the roof, so I thought I'd give it a go anyhow. Pretty good choice on my part.
Started trolling the ol' stand by SR 5. I fish for everything, but have (had) never caught big trout, nothing over 14-15", and this is what I was hoping for; a bit of dinner. I let the SR5 back a good ways then started to drop a weighted wedding ring classic trout troll setup when I heard a clunk. Looking forward, my baitcast set up (bass fishing rig) was doubled; I snatched it up thinking snag (in 50+ FOW?? HOW??) and there was a battle happening. I'm not used to feeling pull like this, let alone in freshwater, so I am getting pretty damn excited there, hooting and hollaring for awhile. I shut up when I looked down and saw this guy 15 feet under the boat giving it his all. I had the net ready and let the fish work for awhile, he looked to be hooked pretty good, and when I thought he was tired, I horsed him up on deck with the net, freaking out shaking on the boat. He'd pulled me WAY OFF from where I'd hooked him and now was giving me hell, almost flipping me at one point, and I wasn't prepared for a hog like this and had nothing to dispatch him with but a scotty rod holder, which worked well. I put him in the hull as I was deathly afraid of losing this fish...tried fishing more but me heart wasn't in it; I was pretty excited, so I went in, randomly met an old friend there who had a scale; 12.5 lbs...there was some celebrating....first Mackinaw caught by me, and I'll never forget it. 2 dinners, a lunch, and still going.
Only bummer was that he ripped the tail hook almost completely off of my lucky lure....good thing he had two hooks in him.
Just goes to show that you can luck out, on a day where nobody had anything, in water MUCH to shallow for this fish to be spending too much time...It'a ALWAYS worth a try...
Makes me want to load up and go again. I love this kayak stuff. 
Cheers,
Garen

What a beast! Congrats on joining the 10+ mac attack club.

-Brian G

That's great I'm excited just looking at it Nice Fish.

Awesome fish and report!  WTG, Man!   

Great report for a super fish.......Congrats!

Wow, Garen, what a catch! Gotta love those SR5s! Thanks for sharing.

Janice aka "Big J"

Congrats on your personal best! 

Awesome fish. Ya just never know what them fishes are thinking.

WOW! Nice catch...congrats.
Thanks for the great report.

Dude that rocks! Macs are so cool looking, I gotta get me one of those sometime.

That Rocks!!!! ............Danglin

Kick ass!  For some reason I never knew until I looked it up just now that a Mackinaw trout and a lake trout were the same thing.     Now I know, Knowledge is power!   

Sweet Mac!! Doner has a bunch of em too. They say the time to go there is right after the planter truck dumps the planters in. Like big florida bass, the macs love a big stupid meal...way to go.

Sick, dude.

Cool lookin' fish.

Right on Man!!!  That fish was just waiting for you.