There are some moments in fishing that you will never forget! There are certain moments in time that are indelibly etched into the fabric of your mind and you can recall them as easily as a memory from yesterday. If you think hard enough, not only do the vivid colors of the trees and sky come rushing back, but the smells and almost the taste of the air seem to be in the present. Maybe you can even hear the sounds of the water, the laughter of a friend, or the feel of a rod in your hand. Hopefully we all at least a few moments like that! I have been blessed to have a few moments like that myself and I felt inspired to write about a one of them tonight.
I'm a lucky guy, I have no problem admitting that. I don't mean lucky in the sense that I always win on scratch-off tickets, I mean lucky in the sense that I feel like I have had some amazing moments take place in my life that were memorable and meaningful. Fishing is a love, a passion, and a source of never-ending contemplation, joy, and reflection. From the places it takes me, to the people that I share the experiences with, to the fish that might or might not get caught, I am forever haunted by moments that are as vivid as photographs but as long lasting as cave paintings.
One of the first fish that I really remember extremely clearly is a fish I will never forget and still plagues me to this day! It was a day in late April about 13 years ago. The sky was overcast, the wind was out of the south, and I was fishing a farm pond. The pond wasn't much bigger than a couple of acres and surrounded by sprouting corn on all sides. On top of that, there were only 3 places on the bank that allowed you to make a cast. The rest of the pond was surrounded by timber and scrub brush. I fished the south side of the pond without any success so I maneuvered to the north end of the pond where the bank was wind-swept. I figured the bait fish would be on this side of the lake and so would the rumored bass that grew to tremendous size. I had yet to catch one of these leviathans or any leviathan for that matter. You see, I was on a quest...and not a quest for fun like Clark Griswold.
You see, I had adopted an unhealthy obsession. Since the moment I found out that my buddy Busch caught a trophy-sized rainbow at Bennett Spring 2 years before and had it mounted, I felt inclined to match the feat. I had it in my mind that I was going to catch and mount the first 6 pound bass that I caught. I set my sights on 6 pounds because the state of Missouri classifies that as a trophy and my dad told me that he thought my best luck at catching such a fish would come from a farm pond that we had access to. Seeing as how I didn't have an engine or boat, I was inclined to agree with him.
So there I was, standing in 6 inches of cool water in my black rubber boots with a spinning rod in my right hand and a spinnerbait in the other. I had fished every inch of water that I could reach but had saved the best for last. It was a pocket of water under a small tree with dead cattails on each side of it. It looked like the perfect place that a big old female bass would lay to ambush food that was passing by or to sit on a nest she could protect.
I had made about 10 casts to the spot and not gotten a bight. There was something telling me not to give up and that the place just looked fishy enough to warrant more time and dedication. It felt like I was Spider-Man for a minute but instead of a Spidey-sense, I felt a fishy-sense. I knew there was a fish in this spot and I was going to catch it! On what felt like my 100th cast (probably 20th cast), my line went tight. For a moment I thought I was snagged on a log but if that were the case, wouldn't I have gotten snagged on a previous cast? Slowly, the log started to head for open water and I realized it wasn't a log.
My heart raced and things went quiet. Excitement, stress, and adrenaline took the place of quiet and solitude. The fish jumped once and thankfully stayed hooked but in the process revealed itself as the object of my desire. This was a bass that looked like it had the potential to go 6 pounds. This was my trophy. This was my moment. The fight lasted a couple of minutes and finally the old girl started to wear out. As she got closer to the bank, I could see that this was indeed the biggest bass that I had ever hooked. I started to walk backwards into the tall, dead grass behind me in order to beach the old girl on the soft mud bank. That's when disaster struck.
In three inches of water, I felt the line go slack. The multicolored spinnerbait came whizzing by my head and the beast was lose. Realizing her sudden release by her captor and seeing freedom on the horizon, she started to flop and orient herself for her escape. I hesitated for just a second (which might have cost me dearly) and then started to sprint for the water. I saw her huge head pointed to the middle of the lake and new she was about to make a break for it. The thought of jumping into the water never really crossed my mind, it was just instinctual. Water splashed from my boots, water sprayed from her tail, and then we came into contact with one another. Luckily, I stabbed into the water with both hands and got a grip on her tail. I thought I had a chance at finishing the catch, but with two strong shakes of her massive, slimy tail, she vanished like a ghost in the wind and was gone.
I stood there dumbstruck for about a minute and tried to come to an understanding of what had just happened. I remember feeling wet, cold, and wind blowing into my mouth as my mouth agape. I then uttered (yelled) some words that are inappropriate for this site and slapped my rod on the water a few times. With my head hanging low, I began the long walk back to my truck. The grey sky seemed to fit the mood and it felt like the temperature dropped a few degrees. I remember the squish of the mud as my boots made each imprint. I will always remember the colors, smell, and tactility of that day as well as all of the highs and lows. It took me awhile to get over that lost moment...obviously because I am writing about it 13 years later. However, in the long run, it strengthened my resolve and gave me a memory I will never forget. I can still picture it like it happened yesterday and is a memory I will never forget or lose the feeling of!
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