Marcus Schiller, age 10, of Mercer Island likes to spend some of his free summer days hanging out at the East Channel dock of Lake Washington fishing for whatever comes to his line.

It might be a small trout, bass, perch or catfish, but on Monday night (June 29) something much bigger decided to test his fishing skills.

Just like his father Mike, the two enjoy going fishing, and over the years dad taught him how to set up his own rod and reel.

So on this night Marcus wanted to show his dad that he could do it all by himself.

After all now he can tie his own leader and rig his own line, so the two headed down to the dock for the evening bite.

A boat had just arrived at the boat launch dock, so Marcus decided to cast his line in the other direction near the moorage of the police patrol boat.

Marcus rarely fishes that side of the dock, but he didn't have a choice since the boat was in the way of his preferred side.

Marcus casted out his small worm, and he really does know his stuff. He'll cast his line out and let it drop to the bottom, and then slowly reel it back in.

Then on one cast he got hooked up.

"His line got caught on the bottom, and I thought it was snagged," Mike said. "Then we got it free, and this fish literally jumped out of the water."

With all the commotion it took Marcus, a fifth grader at Island Park Elementary, about 7 or 8 minutes to land a gorgeous smallmouth bass.

"Nobody could believe how big that bass was," said Mike who estimated the weight to be about 7 or 8 pounds.

What a great way to start off the summer vacation by hooking the biggest bass of your life when you least expect it.