By Mike Cooper
This month’s Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks “Call of the Wild” Athlete of the month, presented by VYPE partner Cabela’s, is Dakota Doll, a Circle Thunderbird! Talk about a fish story! After a day of delivering VYPE my last stop was Cabela’s. After I filled the rack it was time to go home. As I turned into my neighborhood, I noticed a couple of young men fishing in our neighborhood pond. One of them had a rod that was bent into an up-side-down U! He had hooked The Elk Creek Monster! The guy working the rod and reel and especially the drag was Dakota Doll, a freshman at Circle High.
Dakota currently plays club ball with the Wichita Aeros and hopes to play for Circle this spring. He plays catcher and the infield. Dakota also plays Quints in the band and drums for his church worship team. And of course, he loves to fish!
His grandpa hooked him last summer when he gave him a new rod and took him fishing. He really likes the memories he is making with his grandpa. Now back to the fish story and the one that got away!
With a rod that bent I had to see what he had hooked. I had always heard our little neighborhood pond had some big catfish and carp. Dakota had been working the fish for about 30 minutes on 8lb test line! Trust me, he needed 20! He had no idea what he had on the line.
We finally saw the tail come to the surface and we both thought he had a huge cat! Come to find out, he had the Elk Creek Monster! A ginormous carp that easily weighed 25lbs and maybe more! Come to find out, Dakota had been bass fishing with a crank bait.
Unknown to Dakota until the fish surfaced, he had actually snagged him in the dorsal fin! Dakota fought him for another 30 minutes. Every time he got the fish close to the bank it found the strength to go back to the deeper water. No way Dakota could fight it because his line was already stretched!
Dakota’s little brother called in backup – his grandma to bring a net! Unfortunately, the net was probably to small and the next time Dakota got the fish close to bank the dorsal fin gave way and the Elk Creek Monster escaped back into deeper water.
Dakota may have lost the fish, but he has a great fish story and he has VYPE to back him up!
