The Catch

If, like me, you  are a football fan then you might immediately be going back in time to 1982 and Joe Montana to Dwight Clark; “The Catch” as they call it was January 10^th of 1982 as was thrown from Montana to Clark to win the NFC Championship game against the Cowboys. I can still remember and have seen the replay about a hundred times…Dwight Clark catches the back of the football just before it sails out of the back of the end zone; truly one of the most memorable moments in sports history.

So…I am going to tell you about a little different catch and you can probably guess it has to do with a fish, a big fish. Our last day of school was May 30^th and I needed a little fishing and thus made my way south of Bloomington to a small stream that holds some nice smallmouth. I was wading a new section and that is always more exciting as I love to fish new water. The weather was perfect and I was lamenting upon finishing my 27^th year as a teacher…not knowing that in a bit I would catch and land the longest and heaviest smallmouth of my career; 19 inches and approximately 3 to 3 ½ pounds. Now…I tell you about the fish only because it is secondary to the catch; so here is the story and I am sticking to it!

I was fishing a small section of creek that wasn’t very wide and had caught one fish after another; mostly smallies that were about 10 to 12 inches with a couple 14’s thrown in. Many of the trees were overhanging the stream and occasionally I could see that fish were rising and feeding on bugs or critters that were dropping in the water. I decided to tie on a green inch worm fly…that I tied onto my 3 weight fly rod. I made a nice false cast and then landed my little bug under an overhanging limb and allowed the inch worm to sink. I felt a tug and strip set my line with my left hand and saw that I had landed a small (6 to 7 inch) spotted bass. No offense to the spotted bass but I usually quickly strip these smaller fish in so that they don’t mess up any larger fish that might be in the pool. As I jerked this fish across the pool towards me a large smallie attacked my fish. To say that it was violent would be an understatement! The big fish continued to bash the smaller fish, driving him into the weeds and for a moment I couldn’t see either fish.

I had watched this behavior before a couple times personally when I have had a bass attack a small bluegill upon the retrieve. This past year one TV episode showed a large bull trout attacking a smaller cutthroat trout and it too was very sudden and explosive. Now…right here before me was nature at its finest; the big fish wasn’t going to allow the little fish to get away and the little fish was at a severe disadvantage because it was tethered to my fly line!

Once again I stripped the small fish out of the weeds and Mr. Big attacked with incredible speed, driving the small fish back into the weeds for the second time. A third time I stripped the fish loose and the large smallie approached from the front and engulfed my fish head first…all I could see was a little piece of tail sticking out of its mouth. I was momentarily stunned by what I had just seen but as the big fish started to amble back towards the pool I knew I had only one chance; I stripped the line with my left hand hard enough to pull the fly loose from the little fish and hooked the big fish! I didn’t know if it would work and for sure luck played a big part…but there I was, attached to the big fish and it was not happy at all. The fish now took me and my 3 weight upstream and I followed. I got the fish on my reel and knew that if it was indeed hooked well I could land the fish.

What felt like minutes was probably only one minute…but eventually I moved the bruin into the shallows and finally lipped my trophy. He had brilliant striping that went from the corner of his mouth down halfway towards his tail and was a fish that you could tell was the ‘king’ of his pool. As usual I took several photos, one of which you can see above, and then released and watched as this intense few minutes came to a close.

What happened today goes on each and every day and I am amazed by nature and its very cycle of life. The end to my teaching year had gone out with a literal bang and I was inspired to be a witness and a recipient to something as cool as “The Catch”. As this summer progress…get out there and grab your gear and take in the show that nature has to offer as we all Enjoy the Great Outdoors.