I went out last night for an hour of fishing before dark. It was hot and humid. It was 90 degrees when I left the house and 85 when I got home. It didn’t feel any cooler despite the 5
degree cool down. The water was over 90
degrees and flowing at about 35 CFS. It
was a bit muddy from the rain the night before.
I caught several little fish on a white bugger at first. I switched to a blue popper as dusk began to
settle in. I was working the shoreline near
at the end of a fast run when a bass leaped out of the water taking the popper
on the way up! The fish fought hard and
jumped a few more time before it was brought to hand. I said to myself, ”wow, that was an awesome
fish.” I figured that was as good as it
was going to get for the evening. I continued
to fish my way down river working the wood piles and rocks on the far bank with
the popper. As I had popped the fly from
the bank to the middle of the stream, I was preparing to cast back to the bank
and a fish slowly came to the surface and sipped in the fly. I set the hook and pulled the fly from the
fish’s mouth. It was one of those
frustrating moments that makes you say “DAMN” out loud like when you miss a
long putt. I cast the popper back to the
same spot and let it sit for a moment. A
dark form appeared below the fly, slowly rose revealing its bronze sides, the
fish was about to take a second swipe at the fly! The bass sipped in the popper again, I let it
turn and take it under before I set the hook and the fight was on! As I was fighting the fish, I got a good look
at it and it was a beast! It must have
been between 18-20”. As I lipped the fish
and picked it up out of water, I said to myself, “this is a trophy fish.” As I said this out loud to myself, the fish
flipped and flopped itself out of my hand and threw the fly at the same
time. Before I knew it the fish was
gone. No pictures of this beast, but I
did have it in hand. It was like catching a 50 yard pass, breaking through the secondary with no defender between you and the endzone, then triping and fumbling the ball on the 1 yardline. It
was a great fish, and a good moment on the river, but it could have been so
much better!
