The brown trout of independence

I did it. Finally. After consuming copious videos of fishermen catching monster brown trout and working myself up to the point where I couldn't be anywhere else but the river, I finally set my hook into a trophy brown trout (my largest) in the late hours on the 4th of July. Phone already being dead for hours, I made peace with the fact that this fish would never be recorded and it would become an old timer story of "the big brown I caught once" that no one ever believed until I saw a group of people endowned in glow sticks enjoying the fourth of July festivities passing just 40 yards in front of me. I took the opportunity to ask them to take a quick photo and gave them my phone number to send it to me. Truth be told, I could tell my excitement over all the enthusiasm for the fish made them uncomfortable. Looking back now, I must've seemed like a crazed person. I'm actually sure I seemed like that. Later that night, I received the photo and immediately used it to gloat to my father, having just surpassed his personal record. A year later, I stumbled upon Ron Flascheck, a local Michigan artist who creates fish recreations from measurements, and I proudly hung the brown trout of independence. God bless America.