The WINNING Fish Story

Give me a condor's quill!

Give me Vesuvius' crater for an inkstand! To produce a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme.

Oops, my bad, wrong fish story!!

Ah, before I start it needs to be said that this fall was not the best when it came to catching large game fish.

I attribute this to the lack of Dee’s famous fish soap.

~~~~

Anyway, my story begins on the afternoon of September 21, 2008 in a small bay on Brent Lake.

~~

It was a relatively uneventful afternoon punctuated by lots of wind and very few

fish. This is not a good combination for the wayward mind. I was with John.

He was fishing the south east corner of the bay.

Since things were not going well I decided to try something different.

I moved to the narrows leading into the bay.

After fishing for 30 minutes or so and without catching much of anything… it

happened!

~

No not a big fish but more of a big thought.

I thought that I would just lie back in the canoe and wait for John to get done fishing and then head back to camp.

Since John was about a mile away I figured I’d be waiting awhile.

~

Now, the key to what happens next is that John was about a mile away.

I figured that once he got through fishing and started paddling back that I’d be sure to see him in plenty of time.

Now, I’m sure you're wondering, plenty of time for what?

~

As soon as he started paddling towards me I put the rather large net that I was

using in the water on the opposite side of the canoe from which he was heading

towards. I had no fish but I wanted him to think that I had a really big fish.

~

To further "sell" this idea I leaned over the side of the canoe with my arm in the

water up to my elbow.

As John approached he started regaling me with stories of all the fish that he'd

caught and lost.

It took him a second before he realized that my arm and the net were both in the

water.

~

When he did he said "but I’m sure you've got something a lot bigger".

I said I did but that I didn't think I could get it in the canoe without his help.

As he came over to hold my canoe I lifted up the net and started laughing.

~

He looked momentarily startled and then started laughing the hardest I’d ever

seen him laugh.

Even though I did not have what you would call a "traditional" game fish in the

net I still managed to catch the biggest "sucker" I’d ever seen!

~~

NEXT Post the response from the WINNER!