The Paper
07-08-2003, 04:06 PM
My wife and I took my 4-year old and 2-year old nephews out fishing this weekend at my in-law’s pond. There are bass and bluegills in the pond. I beat everyone to the pond to get a few cast in for bass before my wife brought down my nephews, and on my third cast, I land a nice fat 19-inch bass. Figuring now that if I can catch a few nice gills along with this bass, I’d have me a nice meal for the next day. So, I put the bass on the stringer, attach it to the dock, and fished on.
Once my nephews got down to the pond, my focus was on having them catch a few gills. I had a blast trying to get them to set the hook and bring in some fish. While putting a worm on the younger one’s poll, I noticed the older one was giving battle to something big. At first I figured he had a nice size bass on, but I was quite amazed when he brought in this huge bluegill. The gill had to be 14 to 15 inches long and had to weigh at least 2 pounds. All I know is that the gill was thick. When I added the fish to the stringer, it rivaled the bass.
Now my nephew is pretty happy, but I am pumped. I know that because this is a private pond the catch is not eligible for master angler award, but this was definitely master angler material, and my wife agreed, this fish was going to be mounted.
We continued to fish, hoping to bag a few more large gills, but this is where the story takes a turn for the worse. Suddenly the stringer on the dock was pulled tight and then went loose. The whole dock was shaken by the yank. I looked over the dock to come face to face with a large snapping turtle. The turtle had yanked the bluegill off the stringer and was proceeding to eat the gill. When I pulled up the stringer, my bass was barely hanging on; half of its head was eaten, and the turtle started to swimming off with the trophy bluegill. I so badly wanted to kill that turtle.
The turtle crawled to the shore to eat its dinner, which was already half devoured. I sent my wife to get something to help me kill the turtle. She comes back with a baseball bat and my 8-year old son and 9-year old nephew, who want to get in on the action on killing a turtle, but by this time he was gone. So we all proceeded to fish.
The story is not done yet, because my son pulls in a 13-inch bluegill that is around 1 ½ pounds. Not the trophy my 4-year-old nephew caught, but master angler material again. Still hoping to get a good mess of gills I attach this gill to the stringer. I still have my bass. Though the head was partially eaten, the body was still good. After putting the stringer in the water, I position my nephew with the baseball bat to protect the fish from the turtle, incase he decided to come back for seconds. Of course he gets bored and starts to goof off. I do not know how he did it, but somehow he hits the stringer with the bat and unclicks it from the dock, and the blue gill swims away with the dead bass. After trying to snag the stringer for about 10 minutes, I decide to call it a day. I figured it just was not meant to be.
When I told the story to my in-laws, they just laughed. Crap like this always seems to happen to me. Oh well, at least I had fun.
:o :eek:
Once my nephews got down to the pond, my focus was on having them catch a few gills. I had a blast trying to get them to set the hook and bring in some fish. While putting a worm on the younger one’s poll, I noticed the older one was giving battle to something big. At first I figured he had a nice size bass on, but I was quite amazed when he brought in this huge bluegill. The gill had to be 14 to 15 inches long and had to weigh at least 2 pounds. All I know is that the gill was thick. When I added the fish to the stringer, it rivaled the bass.
Now my nephew is pretty happy, but I am pumped. I know that because this is a private pond the catch is not eligible for master angler award, but this was definitely master angler material, and my wife agreed, this fish was going to be mounted.
We continued to fish, hoping to bag a few more large gills, but this is where the story takes a turn for the worse. Suddenly the stringer on the dock was pulled tight and then went loose. The whole dock was shaken by the yank. I looked over the dock to come face to face with a large snapping turtle. The turtle had yanked the bluegill off the stringer and was proceeding to eat the gill. When I pulled up the stringer, my bass was barely hanging on; half of its head was eaten, and the turtle started to swimming off with the trophy bluegill. I so badly wanted to kill that turtle.
The turtle crawled to the shore to eat its dinner, which was already half devoured. I sent my wife to get something to help me kill the turtle. She comes back with a baseball bat and my 8-year old son and 9-year old nephew, who want to get in on the action on killing a turtle, but by this time he was gone. So we all proceeded to fish.
The story is not done yet, because my son pulls in a 13-inch bluegill that is around 1 ½ pounds. Not the trophy my 4-year-old nephew caught, but master angler material again. Still hoping to get a good mess of gills I attach this gill to the stringer. I still have my bass. Though the head was partially eaten, the body was still good. After putting the stringer in the water, I position my nephew with the baseball bat to protect the fish from the turtle, incase he decided to come back for seconds. Of course he gets bored and starts to goof off. I do not know how he did it, but somehow he hits the stringer with the bat and unclicks it from the dock, and the blue gill swims away with the dead bass. After trying to snag the stringer for about 10 minutes, I decide to call it a day. I figured it just was not meant to be.
When I told the story to my in-laws, they just laughed. Crap like this always seems to happen to me. Oh well, at least I had fun.
:o :eek: