Fishin' Redemption with the wife

I *am* a fisherman!

In an effort to redeem myself as a fisherman, and to have some fun and catch some fish, Claire, Walter, and I headed out to the pond in the evening. Just a few short hours after the one that got away at Busse, and I was still a little salty about it. I figured catching some nice fish at the secret pond spot would do the trick.

When we got there, some other people were in my spot!! I'd never seen anybody fish the pond, but then again, I'd never really been there when normal people fish (evenings, weekends). We set up in a different spot, played some frisbee with Walter (it's his favorite thing ever) and did some fishing.

Soon the other family left, so we moved in. I set Claire up with a brown tube jig, which had caught tons of bass there last week, and I put on a bigger 5" black and blue tube. The idea was to get Claire catching a bunch of bass, and maybe my bigger lure would entice a big bass to come up for a visit.

Sure enough, on my first cast, fish on! The bass in this pond fight harder than any bass I've caught, ever, anywhere else. I love it! I can't figure out why, but I'm glad they do. This guy jumped out of the water 4-5 times, splashes everywhere, swam in all directions, jumped some more, but I managed to keep him on and land him successfully. 

I was pure joy! First cast, caught a fish. I don't even care if they do stock this pond- I felt redeemed. It was, as they all are from here, a nice looking fish, but the SMALLEST bass I'd ever caught there. On the biggest lure I'd ever used there! Fish are crazy.

Carefully placed him back in the water, and cast again. Every now and then I helped Claire get the weeds off her lure. At one point she switched to nightcrawlers, but then went back to tubes when I caught another one!

This one was bigger, and fought just as hard as the first! Landed him (or her?) snapped some pics, and carefully released the beautiful fish back into the murky water. I recast, and continued fishing, having a GREAT time. In between casts, I threw the frisbee for Walter, so he was also having a great time.

"Uh-oh, Chris, hey..." says Claire. I see her rod tip bent like she's trying to pull a car out of the pond. But her line is moving! Fish on! Big fish!

I drop my rod and run over to help, and she wants me to land it, so I do. I'm amazed at the fight of these fish! I could do this all night (if it weren't for the mosquitos, which were getting pretty bad).

Claire caught a bass! A nice-sized fish, not the biggest one to come out of there, but not the smallest. We snapped a picture, and again sent the feisty fish back to the deep.

Then we called it a day. The bugs were bad, we caught a bunch of awesome fish, had a great time, and I felt better as a fisherman. What a great wife I have.