Saturday, October 14, 2006

Big Fish

October 14, 2006

It’s not that I am bored with my lake after five years, but after catching four fish one evening, I needed some humility, and possibly, something different was in order. Maybe even different species. Someone had mentioned a pond not far from my lake as a place for kids to fish sunfish and even catfish, maybe HUGE catfish. I decided it was time to find it and fish it.

Pond it was, like the duck ponds that estates usually have. It was a toy lake; so while I was trolling for catfish from a pocketful of cheese, I decided to run a bass lab, throwing booyahs, crankbaits, poppers, and of course, my go-to lizard.

About one-third was inaccessible to bank fishing. I had low expectations for bass, much higher for catfish.

Then it happened. I felt my lure snag, the feeling of catching a wet sock. The slight wobble in my rod said fish. I was barely able to land it, the rod bent completely in half. A 20”, 5 ½ pound bass. I know because I had been to Wal-mart that afternoon and decided on getting (another?) scale and tape measure combined. I am so happy I did. I am sure the pictures will not do it justice, but the light was good, so the website might suffer with this monster.

There are revelations in fishing. Such an extraordinary fish. I let a week go by, just letting that vision simmer in my mind. Almost called an end to my fishing for the season. There are times when fishing seems a religious experience.