"You Won't Catch Any Up There"

Have had more than one angler say that to me over the years, as I let loose with an errant cast that landed in the tallest tree around, but I'm not alone...by any stretch of the imagination. A quick review of the Internet today revealed there are a lot of anglers who couldn't hit the proverbial broadside of a barn, even if their lives depended on it.

Take, for example, the guy who had made himself a topwater, walk-the-dog lure. One day, he aimed a cast "just a little too high," to use his own words, and his prized homemade lure landed about 12 feet up in a tree...I'd say that would classify as "just a little too high," wouldn't you? At first, he tried pulling it out of the tree, but the hooks just dug into the wood.

He next moved his boat to a position about 5 feet to the side of a direct line to the lure, with a plan to cast a jig into the tree with 20-lb. mono tied on, pull down the branch where the lure was snagged, and remove it. "I didn't care about the jig; I just wanted to get my handmade lure back," he said.

Unfortunately, his line snapped, and he ended up having to leave the jig in the tree with his homemade lure. On the way home, he decided to bring a saw the following weekend and cut down the whole tree. "The lure was that important to me," he noted.

During that week, however, he talked himself out of that plan, opting instead to rig up two 1-oz. sinkers to a 32-foot piece of twine, throw the sinkers over the branch holding the lure, and pull the branch down with that rig. This plan worked, and he went home a satisfied camper.

Also read about a fella who said he usually goes into a destruct mode when he gets a $5 lure stuck on a branch. "One way or the other, through sawdust or burning ashes," he shared, "I'm getting my bait back. And that reminds me that I have a Heddon perch color baby torpedo stuck in a cypress tree at my pond. Strange thing is that it's the only tree with the lowest branch at 20 feet. All the others are like 5 feet above the water, and I never get hung in them...only the tree with the high branches."

Let's face it: Most, if not all, have caught their fair share of "branch bass." And don't let it's small size fool you. Even a limb the size of the one in the earlier photo can put up enough of a fight to break your line, snap a rod tip, and/or tie your patience in a knot.

Tree limbs aren't the only obstacle anglers have to deal with. In yet another instance, I read about a young lad who seemed to have trouble getting hung up on stuff in and under the water. For that reason, he wore shorts and sneakers all summer long, so he could wade out and free his lures. "As an outdoorsman, I believe that getting wet is all part of the experience," he said. "I wouldn't recommend my type of fishing for anyone who's afraid of snakes, where there are gators, or if you're like me and happen to live in Philly. Here, you see, you also must not be afraid of an occasional floating body."