The bass bite was slow. The little one hooked up with a 13 incher and later a short. We ate snacks, played around, drank sodas, watched the otter on the other side of the river. Then the wife got a bite. Now, we've got three, 6 lb., spinning outfits, no leaders, light wire circle hooks, live lining shiners, expecting bass up to about 2 lbs.
The wife says, "Honey, help me. This is a big fish."
So I tell her, "It's your fish, just keep your rod tip up and pump and wind."
The fish runs, then turns and runs up into shallow water, turns again and runs back out deep and stays there through most of the ten minute fight. By now the other lines are cleared and the wife is fighting her fish while listening to:
"Mama's got the creature from the Black Lagoon."
"I think we're gonna' need a bigger boat."
"Shoulda' brought a SCUBA tank and a rifle."
"There's no way she can take down three barrels."
Now the fish is back up in the shallows and I'm guessing big mudfish. Then I think I see spots and I'm thinking, "If that's a trout, it might be some kind of record."
Mama asks for the landing net. Of course I didn't bring one, why would you need a net to catch bass?
Now I can positively ID the fish, it's coming to the boat, and I'm wondering if you can lip a striper.
"Just do it," I tell myself. "All you have to do is get it in the boat and lay on it."
Something else I learned today:
You can lip a striper.
Now we have a new problem. He's too big to fit in my 52 qt. cooler and if he flops out of the cooler there's a good chance he will be over the side.
I rig an extra rope into a stringer, tie one end to his lower jaw and the other to a thwart. Strip my t-shirt off, soak it in the river and use it to cover the fish.
We fished a little longer, but since we weren't doing much anyway, we decided to start back to the ramp and hit Subway on the way to Jerry's to show Scott what his bait did for Mama.
That's the spinning rod she used, leaning against the wall.
L-30"
G-20"
W-14 lbs. (on Scott's scale)
