A Little Bit of Everything

Dominion Virginia Power crews were called out about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon (as seen here) when strong winds from a passing storm knocked down a power pole along Seaboard Road in Pungo. According to one report I heard, 176 customers were temporarily left in the dark as a result of the downed pole.

The same storm toppled this tree at the U-bend in the road next to the West Neck Marina boat ramp. From the looks of things (I saw it firsthand), this tree was rotten to start with and eventually would have come down on its own.

Today, though, it was business as usual at West Neck--actually better than usual, given the fact some of those folks with a long holiday weekend already were taking advantage of an extra day in which they could hit the water. A tour of the parking lot quickly revealed that my friend, Tom Acree, had returned for yet another trip to Albright's. And what a day he had.

It started with this 18-and-a-half-inch bass that he caught on a Senko. Then, the tail-bites started again, and that's when Tom decided he was going to find a solution to that problem.

Digging through his tacklebox, he found a 4-inch topwater Rapala and started tossing it tight up against the grass line where he had caught the first fish--and where he and I had caught them Wednesday. By popping the Rapala a couple of times, which made it dip slightly below the surface, then letting it rise back up, the bass would "knock the snot out of it." He finished the day with a total of 10 bass--the biggest one the 18-and-a-half-incher that weighed about 3 lbs.

The "highlight" (if you can call it that) of Tom's day, though, was when he went to put his second fish into the livewell. He saw this stringy thing (stretched out here on the gunwale of his boat) in the water, pulled it out, and took a close look. Turns out it's what was left of a snake that the first fish had regurgitated. The head was missing, and it was evident the remainder had been inside the fish for a spell, but there was no mistaking it--that stringy thing indeed was a snake, "a water snake, though, not a moccasin," as Tom quickly clarified.

Jim Nabors, in his role as Gomer Pyle, always said it best: "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!" You never know what's going to happen when you go fishing... or so has been my experience.