Buck, the 2lb Bass

We’ve been doing quite a lot of fishing since the weather has warmed up so nice. I just love it – – and it’s so nice to take the boat out and sit in the middle of a quiet lake – hunting the ellusive large mouth bass. Actually, they aren’t quite so ellusive. I pull in quite a few of them, really – – most of them too small for dinner, though.

On Sunday, we took my Dad fishing. When we got out to the lake and got ready to launch the boat – – the skies opened up and it started storming hard. Rain. Thunder. Lightening. Tornado Warnings.

I dunno – something told us that going out on the lake at that point wouldn’t be a good idea. So we packed it in. On the way home, Dad looked at my daughter, Melissa and said “I guess I’ll have to catch that 2lb bass next time, huh?”

That was Sunday. Monday – Dad was admitted into the hospital with chest pain. Tuesday, he had an angioplasty and had a stent placed. This morning, I talked to him – – he’s doing GREAT! He said the pain in his chest that he’d been having for the past week was completely gone. He was up, walking around and just waiting for the doctor to come give him his release home.

So I told him the story about Buck, the 2lb Bass.

Last night, we took Melissa fishing to get her mind off her worries about Grandpa. On the way out to the lake, she announces, “I’m going to catch that 2lb bass just for Grandpa tonight!” Now – understand – whenever Melissa goes fishing with us – – she is the only one who never catches anything except some weeds. Chris and I look at each other like “Yea, right – – sure ya are!”

About an hour into it – – guess what the kid pulls into the boat?

Yep. A 2lb large mouth bass. With a hook and a worm. She hauls it right into the boat with this look on her face that was just priceless.

“His name is Buck”, she says.

Chris suggests that we keep it – because two or three more would go good with some rice and veggies.

“NOWAY!”, she says . . “This is Grandpa’s fish!”

So, Buck, the 2lb Bass, gets his release back into the water – and he never had it so good.

The lake we fish is Big Cedar Lake – popular for it’s pike, walleye, bass (small and large mouth) and panfish. The pike in that lake grow HUGE. As a matter of fact, if you happen to catch one – – you can only keep it if it’s 40 inches in length or bigger . . . and even then, you can only keep one per day.

I’m not interested in the pike, though. I’m scared of catching one of those things. Have you ever seen one of those fish? Eeek!

Plus, they have teeth. /shudder

No, I’m interested in the large mouth bass. I just finshed reading “Fishing on the Edge : The Mike Iaconelli Story“, which just fueled my large mouth bass fishing fire. Not the most intellectual read I’ve done in my lifetime – – but it did have some good tips, and it was a fun read, nonetheless.