Truth: stranger than fiction
Strange, even unbelievable things often happen during fishing trips. I’m convinced it’s why fishermen are known as liars.
I hesitate to tell the strangest thing to ever happen to me while fishing, simply because I don’t want to lose any shred of credibility I may have with my audience. But this is exactly what happened while fishing an old mill pond from a small, wooden boat with my friend Richie.
We’d caught numerous quality bass on soft plastic worms, then Richie hooked into one that was on another level. The bass came completely out of the water right away, soaking us wet as it tail-walked past the boat, then pulling drag out of Richie’s reel as it dove for deep water. Richie’s rod was doubled over, and he was struggling to gain any line back. Then, his line went slack and his rod popped back into its original shape.
As Richie’s shoulders sagged in disappointment, I cast my plastic worm at exactly the last spot we’d know the fish to be. Immediately, my rod doubled over, and my own fight was on. The fish took me deep, right beside the boat, then as my rod tip buried into the water, the bass jumped a foot above the surface on the other side of the boat.
By the sheer size of the fish, we both nodded our heads. It was the same bass that Richie had just lost.
Then, predictably, my line went slack and the arc on my rod disappeared. Defeated, I hesitated before reeling in my line. I watched Richie as he rigged a new worm onto his hook, and heard him mumbling about the fish stealing his original worm. Then I reeled my own hook in and discovered that not only had the fish left my worm on my hook, he’d also put Richie’s worm on my hook as well.
I fell to the bottom of the boat, saying “nobody’s gonna believe this!”
Richie made a cast and calmly replied. “Oh they’ll believe it. Crazy things happen during fishing trips.”
What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you on a fishing trip?
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