I hooked a big one...

I went down tonight to renew an acquaintance with an old friend -- my pond. Haven't had a rod in my hands for about three weeks; we were busy with our "G&G Road Trip" to New York to see our new grandson. So since it was a nice cool evening, I thought this might be a great time.

With my very first cast with a minnow-like lure on 6# test, I caught a 12"/3# bass. One never knows if that means spending the rest of the evening being shut out, or if it was, indeed, going to be a great night of angling. Pam was in on the phone, so I didn't get a picture of this one, but trust me, the scratch and the teeth marks on my thumb will verify that I did catch one. OK -- So far, so good.

I whipped the water a little more, and then caught one that looked to be about 10". It was just a young one, but I was happy to catch it just the same. That was two in about a half hour.

Then I walked to another part of the pond and on the very first cast, I hooked a fish that hit like a big ol' catfish, because it stayed down for a while. But when it broke the surface, trying to throw the lure, I saw it was Walter II. It looked to be about 14" and 3-4#. As I said, I only have 6# test on this reel, so I had to be careful. But I got it in, grabbed it by the jaw and started yelling for Pam to bring the camera. There was a couple walking by on the road and they saw me haul it in, and the neighbor just happened to be riding by on her bike when I made a fatal error. I took my eyes off the fish and it started flopping around in my hand. I hadn't gotten the hooks out yet, when all of a sudden the fish buried one of the hooks in my index finger. It was in so deep that the hook almost disappeared. Plenty of blood. Well, I was telling Pam to hurry up and take the picture so I could get the hook out of the fish and then out of the fisherman. Good thing I had a tetanus shot in April.

Picture this -- me with a lure's treble hook buried deep in my left index finger, blood all over the place, trying to get the other set of hooks out of the fish's mouth. I was just thinking how I had really hooked a good one when, for some strange reason, I thought of it from the fish's point of view. It had really hooked a big one too -- ME. Good thing fish don't have cameras too.

Anyway, I was really pleased with three nice bass in an hour. What an evening.

"Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large fish goes home through an alley." (Anonymous)

Hooah