Strange Things We See On The Water

[Bird Watcher]

A buddy and I were plugging toward the bank from my bass boat. We rounded a point and saw a squirrel sitting on a stump about 3 feet out from the bank. As we watched, a very large black bass leaped over the stump and gobbled the squirrel.

While we discussed the chances of us being a witness to this very unlikely event, the bass swam up and placed another pecan on the stump.

Quit it. and up here in MO, it's an acorn in the story, not a pecan. Can tell you're from TX with the pecan reference.

[fishinwrench]

Yeah, I'da bought it if he hadn't said pecan.

[stlskyline]

While fishing the North Fork in AR with some buddies we were floating by McCellan's dock and the two ladies fishing from the dock are in deep discussion. I hear "Don't know what got into that boy he just throw his fly rod in and then jumped in after it" and " he must have been plum crazy like a rabid dog". After getting down a few hundred feet we se one friend in the jon boat anchored up and drinking beer, minus one guy. He explained that his brother had apparently had enough of getting hit in the head with his back cast, thrown his high dollar rod over, realized what he had done and jumped in. He then proceeded to gather all his stuff from the boat and walk back to Gene's Lodge by crossing the dam. It had to have been a several mile walk, pack up his stuff and drive back to St. Louis. Wish I could have witnessed the jump We still give him trouble and laugh.

[Flysmallie]

I was fishing a popular swimming hole early one Sunday morning. Had been going there early for several weeks trying to catch a big smallie I had pinpointed. I was all alone without another person in sight, enjoying the peace and quiet of the outdoors. Then I hear the most dreadful sound you could ever hear while out in the wilderness alone. A sound that immediately makes you mess your pants. It was the very recognizable sound of a pump shotgun chambering a shell and it was right behind me. I turned around and there was the redneck standing there with a shotgun not 50 feet behind me. Apparently he was down there the day before with his kids and one had left their shoes and he was trying to find them. Not sure why he decided to pump that shotgun when he got right behind me or how he even snuck up on me. I guess the fact that he was armed never registered with me or it pissed me off so much that I didn't care, but I chewed his butt good. There was a whole lot of "Yes Sir" and "No Sir" and "I'm really sorry" coming from him before he made a break for it. Somehow I ended up scaring him as bad as he did me.

Never did catch that smallie.

[mic]

Flysmallie you a baddddd man.

[Flysmallie]

Flysmallie you a baddddd man.

Bad? No. Not at all.

Ignorant? Yes, sometimes.

[Big Brown Trout]

lol these are great keep them coming guys!

[jdmidwest]

I watched a large watersnake wrestle with a catfish for about an hour last summer on a stream. I first noticed a commotion on the other bank and saw the fish flopping. The snake had caught a catfish larger than it could handle and was trying to swallow it. It was a steep bank on the other side and the snake could not control the fish. It would drag it out of the water and try to swallow. The fish would flop and they would tumble back down to the water. The catfish managed to break loose a few times, but the snake would catch it before it got into deep enough water to swim. Don't know if he ever got the job done, I finally decided to get back to fishing and left the 2 alone to play the game.

[Bird Watcher]

There used to be a big hole down on the river by my house that had a largemouth in it that could not be caught. Everyone that I knew had seen the fish or had it on at least once, but no one could get a hook in the fish. We called him "ol windchime" because so many lures were broken off in his lips that he sounded like a metal windchime when he would jump out of the water.

Well, one afternoon I was down there fishing and wasn't doing much good so I took a break and climbed out on a Sycamore that grew out from the bank at about a 45 degree angle. As I sat there watching the water flow by, a school of minnows started to school and feed below me. I was watching their shimmering sides as the picked away at the gravel when all of the sudden a violent dark green missile launched into the school. It was old windchime. He blasted the school of minnows and as he was slowly swimming back down into the depths, I noticed that on his back was a rather large long pincered crawdad. The kind that live in Table Rock and all the White River tribs.

Well, that got me to thinking so I went back home and fetched a piece of bacon out of the fridge. Upon returning to the river hole, I crawled back up on that Sycamore with the piece of bacon and fishing pole. After lying motionless for a few minutes, I spotted ol windchime and his mini lobster companion underneath a large submerged log. I lowered that piece of bacon down the side of the log just above the crawdad and when he smelled it he crawled off of ol windchime and latched on. I quickly reeled him up and slung him up on the bank. Now, this crawdad was a big one. Every bit of 9" from the tip of his nose to the tail, with pincers he was close to a foot long. Once I had that crawdad in my bucket, I went to work on ol windchime. Believe it or not, I went through the entire tackle box trying to entice him to bite, but could not get any interest out of him. I remembered the school of minnows I'd seen him chase earlier and set off looking for them. I finally located them, caught a few in the seine, and baited my hook. On the first drift, ol windchime darted out and inhaled the minnow. All around, up, down, we went until finally he was played out.

He went 11.2# on my Zebco DeLiar, but the most intriguing thing was the tackle in his mouth. I found 3 black buzzbaits, a chrome hot n tot, 2 white flukes, a Sammy, 4 jig and craws in assorted colors, 3 senkos, 4 crankbaits, and some type of home made spinner bait. All of them had line still attached to the bait but they were all neatly snipped 3-4" back from the fishes top lip. Right where the big crawdad had been attached to him.

[fishinwrench]

Wheeew ! It's gettin' deep in here.