My Day Fishing

I was almost on my last cast over at Harveston today. I had been slowly working another one of those T-rigged craws to see if I'd have some luck with it today. I had been there for a while and was doing the whole "Ok, one last cast.....Ok, just one more..." thing.

As I brought the bait within 20 feet of where I was standing I felt it hit something ... or something hit it. I stopped and waited to feel the tug.

Nothing

I gave it a little pull. There it was again. "I think a fish is either hitting my bait with its head, or it's slowly picking it up with its mouth."

I could see my line tighten a little. Just a little. Then it would go slack again. It did this about 3 times. Each time it was just the slightest change. If I hadn't been watching my line I wouldn't have caught it because I couldn't feel it.

My line tightened again and I stayed real still and just watched.

I started to chuckle a little when I saw my line slowly start moving towards me on its own. I could almost picture him down there with my bait behind his back, trying to tip-toe past me with me noticing. Like one of my kids trying to smuggle away an extra cookie.

I waited a second, then set the hook.

He was little guy, but he was pretty strong.

I figured I had set the hook pretty well. He was fighting but wasn't going anywhere.

I reached into my pocket to get my pliers and thought, "I'll let him fight for a little bit." I switched my rod to my other hand and just held it, not keeping the tip up and not keeping tension on the line.

I had my pliers ready and I saw him do a quick shake underwater and my bait came up without him on it.

"Well played, little guy! Well played!"