CONNOQUENESSING TWP — John Homa tried to mask his excitement.

Catching a 22-inch, 7.5-pound female breeder rainbow trout wasn’t such a big deal to him, after all.

“I’ve caught plenty of fish bigger than that one,” he said. “I’ve fished in Canada, Michigan, New York ... all over.”

But Homa caught this one in Little Connoquenessing Creek, on private property, at a spot he’s been fishing at for decades.

The Meridian resident will turn 88 on July 18 and suffered a stroke 14 months ago.

“I couldn’t even walk for the longest time,” he admitted. “But the rehab went pretty well and I was able to get back out there.”

Homa was an avid golfer for years and fishes at the spot pretty much every day, for up to five hours a day.

“I never get skunked,” he said proudly. “I’ve been fishing there since I was 6 years old. My buddies always said I could catch fish in a bathtub if I wanted to.

“The only time I don’t bring any fish home is if the ones I caught that day were too small. Then I just throw them back in the water.”

He wasn’t throwing this one back.

It gave him too much of a fight.

Homa uses a cane to get around and had it laying on the ground above him while fishing the creek recently. He sat on a 5-gallon bucket, his pole setting a 4-pound test line in the water.

“I could tell a good-sized one grabbed my line,” he said. “That fish yanked it pretty good.”

The battle lasted for an hour before Homa was able to get the fish out of the water. He was unable to enlist the aid of his cane during the tussle.

“My husband, Frank, came home and John flagged him down to help him get it out of the water,” property owner Melissa Blaine said. “Once he helped him land it, he came after me to get the camera.

“That was the biggest fish I’ve seen come out of that creek and we’ve lived here 15 years.”

Blaime said Homa was “exhausted” after the fight, but couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

“He was so excited,” she said. “Totally worn out, but absolutely beaming. He could barely stand up.”

“You just have to play a fish like that, be patient, and it will wear itself out. It’ll get tired,” Homa said. “I wasn’t letting go ... no way was I letting go.

“You don’t see many breeder fish in this creek. They only stock them with maybe three or four a year.”

More than 40 years ago, Homa said he caught a 36-inch walleye in Canada and was going to have it mounted.

“Then a buddy of mine caught one a couple of inches bigger, so I didn’t bother,” he said. “To this day, I’m still sick that I didn’t mount that thing. It was beautiful.”

Homa didn’t have this rainbow trout mounted, either — but he seemed equally as proud of it.

“I know my time is running out,” he said. “But, God-willing, I’ll keep heading out to fish. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a fight on my hands like that.

“It feels good knowing I can still win ‘em.”