I don't fish much. It's kinda cool; I don't have enough time, I guess. Plus, I'm the type to kill nothing and throw all fish back, unless it's particularly huge and tasty. (hard for even me to understand how I got to be such a carnivore).
But I have a friend Al (51 like myself) who seems to love to fish. He got me to invite him up for a weekend; we even bought fishing licenses. I have that 9' aluminum rowboat with an old trolling motor whose biggest problem is that "SLOW" ( 1 of 3 speeds) is a bit faster than you might want for slow trolling. (We didn't drag a bucket to slow it down). We didn't think having the dog in the boat was a great idea, so we tied her up in the driveway.
Anyways, after a few hours circling the lake Sat. morning with really nothing happening down under (no bites), we came home and did some tree cutting (got a permit to take down 2 pine trees hanging over our deck, plus one leafless old birch REALLY angled over our deck). We got the 2 pines down without anyone or anything getting hurt...the birch is a bit more difficult. At this point (1pm or so) Al took a nap....and to my amazement I got quite a LOT done while he was napping. --dragged ALL the pine brush up to the driveway --stacked the pine logs....now the deck looks really good, more sun.... --took (my dog) Downy out in the boat, trolling alone
By now the sunshine was at its best. Not usually the best fishing time, I think it's said? But the dog as a good luck charm really worked this one time. Al had set up my rod/reel with a nice setup:
---- flashy spinner, with a hook just behind the spinner ---- 18" or so behind, another hook with a live worm
I hadn't even noticed the leading hook; I thought I just had one hook, the one with the worm on it.
I got the unmistakable tug-tug-TUG! of a fish, with the line maybe 50 feet out (maybe down 30 feet, 80-100 feet offshore) and it was not a big battle (I was inclined to be gentle/patient). At one point though I saw a jump/breech, might have been my imagination
but it did seem like a big and colorful fish. I kept reeling in slowly and when the line got near the boat I saw: on the leading hook was what I'd almost call a "minnow", I think it was a 4" perch (not as round as a sunfish) with a colorful side marking. Poor little guy....
Then I noticed this HUGE fish that kept coming AT the little one... from various depths like 1-3 feet. (I didn't know he was hooked at the time). I started dangling my net near the little one, hoping to net the big one who seems rather oblivious to the net ... (turns out it was me being oblivious to having already had BOTH on hook, and probably tortured and tired them out getting him in).
I got the big one netted gently, putted to shore, left the net halfway in the water, and woke up Al, who did the honors (I'm too clueless) of grabbing the big boy by the lower lip, exposing the biggest mouth I've ever seen on a lake-fish (it was a maybe 16" 1lb largemouth bass, not beautiful from the top ....mostly dark looking......).....unhooking him, and at my urging, tossing him back. (No pictures were taken).
Since Al mostly got "skunked" (no luck fishing) all weekend, this surely made my day .....year......I believe it was luck from Downy, who was such a good boat-buddy and pretty darned interested in the fish (she spends hours lately, has for weeks, wading in search of them).
As a non-fisher, it was pretty amusing to see the truckload of gear Al brought with him for this momentous occasion :)