David is learning to fish. Spinning reels are more his speed at this point, so I set him up with a large old spinning reel with 30 lb Fireline on it. I loaded that onto an old broom stick medium-heavy rod so that he could have a chance to pull a fish out of the sticks, trees, lily pads and slop that Bobber and I gravitate to when fishing for largemouth.
David has not been to the same spot twice since he started fishing with us in May. I've taken him to the Madawaska Head Pond, the Ottawa River at Arnprior, Muskrat Lake, and the Rideau River at Kilmarnock. Under my strict tutelage, David has developed to a point where I felt he had a chance to win a fight with a bass in the grass at Rockland. So I picked him up after work yesterday.
The wind was all wrong - a strong breeze out of the East. We headed into a back bay and got pushed at 30 knots through the grass and weeds. Kind of tough for what I had in mind. David hooked into this one all the same...
...and he missed several others that wrapped his line around 40 lbs of grass and lilies.
It was a tough bite for us. Not a lot of contact was made and we tossed tubes and frogs and jigs and senkos. We headed to my old faithful spot in Rockland and began to throw baits into the edges of the grass. We had several more hits and blow-ups but no bass. I caught a pike that... well... at least it was a fish.
Then completely off-guard, I was all arms and legs trying to set the hook on a fish when my rod tip was already high and I had a coke in my left hand. Must get fish away from grass. Must reel. Must set hook good. Must put coke down. It was not the cleanest technique for catching a fish and David was giving me the gears for it the rest of the evening... saying stuff like (in his Australian accent) "Howly snawpping #^$*&'s, cleely yow downt requar eeny skill for thees sport"
And he is unrelenting in his abuse.
I'm not sure why it makes me laugh my head off. Here is the fish that was the cause of the abuse...
So now I feel the challenge is to gain the Aussie's respect and some self-confidence in my fish-catching abilities. It came about 20 seconds after I said "We've gotten out of the best water and need to go back downstream again - but one more cast first." And pow...
I had no scale, but I am pretty sure it was bigger that the 5.06 lb-er from Muskrat.
And that's it till the next good fish come aboard.
