If You Snooze, You May Lose

Doesn't the little fisherman in this photo (from the latest issue of Jay Kumar's BassBlaster) look comfortable? It's just proof that "kids can fall asleep anywhere." If you would like to see some more examples, just go to Google images and do a search, using the preceding phrase I put in quotation marks. You'll be amazed at some of the photos you find.

I don't mind telling you that there have been a few slow days on the water when I, too, felt like I could have used a little nap of my own. Of course, if I ever were to lay on something as hard as the deck of my boat, I probably would need a little help getting back on my feet, whereas the young fella in this photo likely jumped back up effortlessly from his snooze.

The only caution I would give anyone, regardless of age or gender, who decides to catch a few winks while fishing, is to either reel in your line and lay down your rod, or find a reliable way to secure it if you choose to leave a baited line in the water.

In hindsight, the gentleman in the photo at left undoubtedly would second that advice. You may not be able to tell from this photo, but the fella here is kicked back, sound asleep, waiting for a big fish to bite. Click on this link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhfJLmL-s8Q) to see the rude wake-up call he got. The guy at least gets style points for sticking the landing. He also deserves credit for hanging onto his rod the whole time and landing the fish.

Incidentally, the fella in this photo was fishing off a small boat dock on Canadhota Lake, Pennsylvania.

In researching material for this blog post, I also came across an angler (see right) who let a bass pull a rod off his boat.

Unlike the fella above, though, he wasn't sleeping. Instead, he was shooting some video for his website at the time and noticed that his video-camera tapes were getting close to running out. In the 30 seconds or so it took him to change the tapes and get back to fishing, a "sneaky" smallmouth did the dirty deed.

About 10 or 15 minutes later, the smallmouth jumped, giving the angler a chance to go catch his line. Initial efforts were fruitless. Three minutes after the first leap, though, the bass jumped again--right next to the boat. This time, the angler got his rod and reel back, even though the fish had pulled it about 100 to 150 feet from the original spot in 15 to 20 feet of water. To watch the whole evolution, click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FPZjV_G6LU.