The one that got away

We've all heard the stories of the one that got away. I only wish I could back up what I have to say with the fish itself. It was a gorgeous day out today, and decided to go out and do abit of fishing. There's a nice set of ponds near the castle here in town, and though I have fished one of em a few times, I decided to fish the smaller pond today.

I broke out the 5 wt, tied on a hopper pattern, and started slingin it out there as far as I could. All I was getting were bites from bluegills too small to even get the hook in thier mouth. I switched over to a colorful bassbug after a few casts, and started to let it fly as far as I could. Only one side of the pond was accessable due to weeds along the shores, so I had to stick to one side of the pond, and work it as well as possible with what I had.

I had almost given up when I seen a little swirl about 15 ft out in the water, and thought I'd give it a try. I double hauled and landed the fly just in front of the spot I had seen. I twitched it once, n gave it a gentle pop....next thing I knew the fly disappered, and line was being stripped from the reel faster then I could get My hands on it. It got it down into the backing, n seen it do a nice jump near the other side of the shore, and then I could only guess as a deep dive.

Next thing I know....the line goes slack. Now, I've been fishing long enough to know to keep the rod tip high....check. I know to keep the line tight, but give him room to move so he don't break off....check. But, what I don't know is how to keep the dang snags in the water from keeping My line from breaking when I have possibly the biggest fish I've ever hooked in My life on the line, to get it to hand.

The funny part is I rushed home right afterwards to tell My g.f. we have to go to walmart to buy a raft. When she heard about the fight, she grabbed her rod, n asked what I was waiting for. We went back out there, n fished for another hour or so, n seen him out there rising, n teasing us, but didn't get any bites. I'm just glad he was still out there rising, so I didn't sound like some dang fish story telling angler.

Tomorrow is round two. I'm gonna get that fish. No matter what, I'm getting that fish. I definatly need to get a pontoon raft, or at least a raft. I think once I get to building My rods later on, Im definatly gonna be building a good bass rod that I can get alot of line out on the water with. Well, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to talk about the one that DIDN'T get away, lol.