A Tale of Two Clueless Anglers and Their Zebco 33s

Imagine two guys who were part of a large group of water-tower painters. They were traveling around the countryside painting water towers. As a reward for the big year they just had had, their boss was treating them to a week of guided fishing trips.

"On the first day," said the guide, "these two characters kept me laughing so hard I could hardly fish. When the plug came out of my boat, and it almost sank, one of them ripped off his T-shirt and used it as a plug. On top of that, one fella was wearing a Mickey Mouse hat with a propeller on top, and the other had a Bob Dylan shirt, with him giving the finger to a group of senators. These were my kind of guys, even though neither one of them had a clue about bass fishing.

"They each had a Zebco 33 with 20-lb. line," continued the guide, "'cause they had heard you had to have heavy line where they were fishing. You well can imagine how much 20-lb. line a Zebco 33 will hold...maybe 25 yards or so. I offered them baitcasters or spinning reels, but neither ever had used one of these."

The guide went on to explain that, during that first day, these two clients caught 50 or more fish but got hung up a few times, too, and lost some line, leaving them with very little on their reels.

"We had such a good time that day they made sure we fished together again the second day," he said. "As luck would have it, some of their friends had caught 5- or 6-lb. bass the first day, and these two wanted to try and catch a big fish, too. So I took them to an area where I had caught a 7.7-pounder in a tournament just the weekend before.

"Because I felt they weren't likely to catch a fish on a jig like I had used, I tied on a Magnum Mudbug for both of them. It was early March, and the big fish were just moving up to the ridges to spawn, a perfect situation for a large crankbait. Only problem was that I didn't think about their reels having so little line.

"We got there about daylight, and I told one to throw over yonder and the other one to throw on the other side of the boat. After a couple of casts, one hollered, 'I have a big fish on', but the fish immediately hung on a shallow stump. We could see it just under the surface, and it indeed was a toad, just tearing up the water.

"I kicked the trolling motor on high and started that direction. About halfway there, the other guy, however, yelled that he was hung up on a tree. I told him to just push the button on his reel to release his line, so we could get his partner's fish first. As luck would have it, though, there was only enough line on the other guy's reel to get about 5 feet away from the bass that was hung up on the stump.

"Being a quick thinker, I told the other guy to just break off, so he yanked as hard as he could, and his bait came loose...and, as it did, an even bigger bass grabbed his Mudbug and wrapped him around a stickup as tight as a hatband.

"I don't mind telling you," said the guide, "that I was a mess, trying to think what to do now. Both guys now had good bass on, and both were out of line on opposite sides of the boat. The first guy saw that I wasn't thinking very well at the moment and said, 'I'll cut my line, so we can try to get my buddy's fish.'

"This statement made sense since the buddy's fish acted like it might be over 8 lbs. We agreed, and he pulled out his knife and cut the line. Now this fish had been hung on that stump about 4 or 5 minutes, so I figured it was tuckered out. Just as the the first guy cut his line, though, the other fish broke off, and we only could watch as about 15 lbs. of bass slowly swam off in opposite directions. There was nothing to do then but just sit there and try to laugh and cry at the same time."