Friday, August 27, 2010

Fishing for . . . . What?

Yes, I know, you are getting tired of fishing stories, but this is not quite the usual fishing story. Bear with me while I try to tell this just as it happened.

It was back a few years ago, probably around 15 or 20 years ago, I decided to take a break and go catch me a big ole bass out of my swamp. It was still daylight, so just put a big old plastic worm on the hook with a worm sinker. Figured that I would just go down to what we called the dam area. Sometimes I spelled it differently (grin).

It was quiet and the water was smooth as glass. I walked softly over to where the woods came into the water. There were some tall weeds to my right that created a wall that couldn’t be penetrated with a fishing lure. So, I cast the worm over some low water plants and out into the open water. Got a strike on the first cast, but missed it. Sometimes the smaller bass go after those big old worms and only get the tail, so figured that is what happened.

Not another bump on the next half dozen casts, but then I got a whopper of a hit. Bent my casting rod dang near double. I set the hook real good and got ready for a good fight. Good fight indeed!!! “This had to be the Mother of all bass, a real hog, probably mated with a whale at some point”; my mind was trying to comprehend this whopper on the other end of my line.

Then I got it worked close enough to shore so I could get a glimpse of it. It was no fish, but a big ole Cotton-Mouth Snake!!! Well, I was not going to be outdone by a snake, so I kept fighting it until I got it into the shallow water where those water plants and grasses where. Well, he (or she) wrapped itself around all the weeds it could get a hold of. I pulled as hard as I could and had the pole doubled over.

Then my mind remembered a small part of a movie I had seen. Do you remember the 1988 film with Chevy Chase called “Funny Farm”? There was a part in it where Chevy was fishing in the tank (farm pond) and yanked in a big ole snake that wrapped around his neck and he had to fight it off. Well, I admit, I may not be as smart as Einstein, but at that moment I was being dumber than the character Chevy Chase was playing in that movie. So, just as I was coming to my senses and was contemplating cutting the line, it saved me the trouble and broke. If those weeds the snake had wrapped itself around had pulled out or broke off, I would have had a poisonous, mad snake wrapped around my neck instead of a movie prop. I’ll bet the writers for that movie would have never guessed that something like that could happen in real life.

Ok, now I will promise not to have another fishing story for you tomorrow. . .

4 comments:

  1. Well, I told you about gigging the snake, as for fishing , I was throwing ultra light baits on top water in a small pond one day when I saw a BIG ole frog on the edge just past that fallen over tree on myside of the bank. I cast a worm just past him and eased it toward him in the edge of the water.
    Faster than superman can fly he grabbed it and bounded into the water!!! Now I got him hooked BUT my line is over a fallen small tree limb. I worked him back up til he was dangling and then "popped" him over the limb like I would have a spinner bait that I didn't want in the tree. First time I ever "fished " for frog legs!!!

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  2. Hey Ben, that reminds me of the time I was fish camping with friends and was out in the canoe by my self and hooked a nice bass. It went down in about 8 or 10 feet of water and tangled up in roots. Broke the line. Went back to camp and didn't say anything about the fish, put on trunks and went back out in the canoe

    I swam down and got the fish. Took it back to my friends and told them "Heck, I don't need no fihing equipment to catch a fish". Their mouthes dropped open.

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  3. And then there was the time I was fish'n with one them el cheapo rods from Walmart....plastic handle grip. I hook up to a pretty nice look'n bass and "pop", that plastic handle broke slap off....rod and reel overboard. So's I take my other fish pole and start cast'n with a weight on the end. Snagged the line from my broke pole, reeled in a nice 2 1/2 pounder and that pole.....saving a high dollar reel.

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  4. Must have been a high priced reel, cause I know you wouldn't go to all that troble for a little 2 1/2 pounder. . .

    Hey, did you meet up with the Old Fat Man?

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