Had John and Seth fishing with me yesterday. I happened to set up on a spot with one of the old structure trees under it. Fished all afternoon with only a couple small bites. Could not figure out why there were no fish in this spot that normally turns some action. The reason there were no fish came to us. Before it got dark John happened to see my rod go shooting out the hole. Too late to grab, it was a goner.
About dark Seth got a big fish on. I was clearing the other lines, and John saw it go past the hole and said it was real big. Seth’s line snapped before we could get the gaff going. We retied the line and settled in for some after dark fishing. About 30 minutes later John set the hook on something, and it was big too. Got it up to the hole and it was a big Northern again. Snap, lost it again. I told the boys it was probably the same fish, but at least it should be spooked and go away so we could get some crappie. No, after another retie and settling in it came back on my line. I got it parked under my hole and was set to gaff it but my spot light went dead. Could not get an accurate gaff attempt with the small flash light we had. It broke my line too. As I am reeling in a spare bobber comes up in my hole, it was the rod I lost earlier.
John got one nice crappie a few minutes later. We decided to leave on a positive note. I was tired of re-tying lines, it was misting outside, and getting to be that time.
Looking at that fish’s head, I would put it at 15 pounds or better. The usual fish were scared of that thing hanging around. That’s what I call a persistent NP, or possibly a real knot head.
