Holy Crap(pie)

Alright, so it wasn't a crappie at the center of this tale, but I did catch one this weekend.

I enjoy fishing.  I mean, I REALLY enjoy fishing.  It doesn't matter whether I'm standing on a lake shore when it's 45 degrees and windy, or turning my skin to a leathery brown sexiness in the heat of the summer sun.  I enjoy fishing.

Two weeks ago, and again this past weekend, I've had opportunities to try landing the "big one."  There have been a few that were worthy of the popular first-biggest-most challenge that I have with @y2kemo anytime we get together near a body of water.  Most of what I snagged and tossed back were baby bass and perch, commonly known to some in my fishing circle as the "PER-anha!"

Without the keen eye of @y2kemo nearby to corroborate my story, I have to rely on the lovely NF to say "it's true" in the event that this tale of the one-that-got-away is challenged.  The biggest fish I've ever personally reeled in is a 7 pound Large Mouth Bass. There is a witness and a slew of photos documenting said event from spring of 2010.  What took place yesterday is my "almost the coolest fishing event" for spring 2011.

I had been reeling in tiny bass and perch for a few hours and even got to show off a sizable channel cat to NF and her folks.  NF was lying on the pier, half asleep and soaking up the sun, while I was fighting a monsterous beast that had grabbed hold of the night-crawler I was using to coax another catfish onto my hook.  No big.  Just a little tug on the line here and there.  Probably just another tiny bass that nature has placed in the lake to keep me busy as I work on my sunburn.

Instantly, my fishing pole went from slightly bowed as I was reeling to bent nearly in half.  I don't typically expect to catch some huge aquatic creature when I'm fishing, so the gear is scaled to snag my usual under a foot long, less than 3 pounds fish, plenty of weeds, and an occasional tree limb.  The sudden bowing of the rod was not uncommon when I'm dragging a hook through weeds on the lake floor, and having some small fish attached made it seem that much more likely.

I get the line reeled in enough to see what has been nibbling on my bait, and sure enough, it was another tiny 6-inch bass.  What took a second for me to realize was that it wasn't a bunch of lake-bottom weeds that were  hung around the cute little guy that should be dangling from my line after a few more turns of the reel.  This thing, attached to the baby bass on my hook, was as long as my arm, spotted on it's sides, a short tail at the end of it's long, skinny body, and a beak-like head that had hundreds of razor-sharp teeth if it had two!  (Yeah, I made up the razor-sharp teeth part.) It had clamped down on the body of this baby bass as I was pulling it along harmlessly in my direction.  Just as I pulled it above the waters surface, the beast let loose of the bass, realizing that meal it had anticipated was not worth flopping around on the pier while I tried to figure out what-the-eff to do with this crazy behemoth that was unlike any I had caught before.

As soon as the shock turned to excitement, I yelled to NF, "Look at this!  Holy crap(pie)!"  She took a couple of seconds to shake off her half-napping state, just in time to see the beast hang out next to the pier for a moment, then dart away, likely toward it's next attempt at a meal.

Yep, gotta claim this one as an "almost" or "one-that-got-away."  I'm not entirely sure what it was, but some quick research leads me to believe it was a Pike.  I'll do some more research, find out what the best bait for pike or muskie (another possibility) is, and try to reel in the new "biggest fish I've ever caught."

I also plan to keep a camera handy any time there's a fishing pole within reach. This was a couple of weeks ago, but worth sharing:



Nobody likes to hear tall tales when it comes to fishing.