A funny thing happened...
I've been going through fishing withdrawals for a few weeks. Today the weather was nice, I had most of my chores done. OK, I painted the trim around to the corner of the house where it can't be seen from the street, put the lid on the can and washed my brush.
The weather was still holding, no wind and the temperature was about 80 degrees. I chucked my gear in the Vue and drove out to a local pond to play with the little bluegill and bass. I like to use a 7' 4wt. for these little guys. I use bright green buggers I tie on #12 hooks with a brass bead head. The fishes seem to like 'em and they are easy to remove and get fish back in the water quick. Well, after fishing several spots and catching a few of both species I went to the last hole I planned to fish before coming home. I hooked a nice little bluegill, had it almost landed when a very large U.S.O (unidentified swimming object) attacked it. Fortunately Mr. bluegill saw the thing coming and I guess figured I was the lesser of two evils and jumped out on the bank. I unhooked it and returned it to the water and the big bad thing came back and chased it back on the bank. This time I pick it up and walked about 20 feet down the lake and released it into some cattails. Fish happy, I went back to my rod and casted back out. This time I hooked a bass (about 6") and the creature came back on the attack. I Identified it as an 18" to 22" rainbow trout. Well, I rescued the little fella from the big one, walked him to the reeds and turned him loose.
It was getting late and I needed to go, but heck, I had a big, hungry trout lurking in the shallows and it wasn't dark and ... I tied a #8 matuka on a #4 tippet and made a few false casts to get it out there and started stripping back when I got a hit. Another little bass. What's it doing biting a big ol' hook like that? Nothing to do but land, release and try again. Wait! Big Fish! Big swirl! The dang thing took the bass and swallowed it. Gulp! Now I had it on, not hooked, that was the bass, just on the end of the line. I let it run for a few seconds until all the stripped line was out then started palming the reel to slow it down and try to turn it back to shore. On the third try I had it turned and was reeling it when It found a large patch of moss, twirled around in it and try as I might I could not get it out. Line broke, Jim sad, whatta fish.
I calmed down, loaded my gear and my wounded pride in my Vue and came home. I told my bride the sad little story and she said, "So what's for dinner?"
I know I'll get more sympathy from my fellow fishers at FAOL. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I suppose it's better to fish and lose than to paint a house. I wonder how the weather will be tomorrow? Jim
