With a day like we had today, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to slip my boat into the water and go fishing for a while. I expected there would be others taking advantage of the nice weather, and for that reason, I decided to take my leave of West Neck Creek and find a spot where I might avoid company. The back of Albright's Creek seemed like a good option, so that's where I headed this morning.
In a span of about 30 yards, I had a half-dozen swirls under the SS Minnow but no takers. The swirls continued for about an hour and a half before a 12-incher finally got a little too close to the hooks, and I boated him for my first fish of the day. The next fish to come aboard was the 1-10 bass pictured here. I also boated a 1-2 before my day ended about 3 o'clock. All three fish came on the SS Minnow in gold with a black back.
I was fishing this bait a little different from the standard retrieve. I was making a cast, then just twitching it back to the boat across the surface with the rod tip. I tried some other "true" topwater baits, but none of them produced a single strike, so I went back to the SS Minnow and stayed with it the rest of the day.
While I had a great deal of enjoyment from a basically topwater type of day, the highlight came while I was watching a fella in a Ranger, who was sharing the back of Albright's with me. It was my watching him play a big fish that helped me come up with the title for this post.
I happened to be catching a glimpse of this fella over my shoulder when I saw him set the hook on a nice fish. The rod bowed hard, and then he started tippy-toeing fore to aft and back, occasionally circling the perimeter of his boat's deck, all the while keeping his rod tip down and wearing the fish out. For a good 5 minutes or better, I watched this man fighting his fish. Finally, I saw him grab a net, but then just as fast as he picked it up, he put it back down, and started circling the boat's perimeter again with the fish. I was starting to wonder just what he had hold of when I got my answer.
The fella got down on his knees, picked up a fish "tranquilizer" from the bottom of his boat, and started whacking one of the biggest grindles I've seen in a while. He still was beating it in the noggin' when I wheeled around and went back to fishing. I couldn't help but smile a little as I reflected on all those times when I've found myself in the same situation. I think there's probably quite a few of us who can relate to the letdown this fella undoubtedly felt after fighting the fish for so long, only to see that face full of ugly teeth staring back at him once he got the fish up far enough to see him.
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