Strange but true fish tale.

They say that a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. When it's August in Michigan, and your job is in a poorly ventilated machine shop, you can see a certain amount of logic in those words.

On this particular day, I called in "sick" to try a little pre-dawn bass fishing. The biggest ones always seem to rise before the sun. At least that's the conventional wisdom.

As I walked down to the lake, I took in the amazing beauty of the mirror-flat water and the reflection of the trees all around. The sun just barely peeking over the the eastern edge of the lake. Gorgeous! On days like this, you don't even care if you catch fish. Just throw in a line and watch the day unfold.

All the same,I tied on my favorite jitterbug, and the hunt was on. I had a strike almost immediately. The jitterbug never fails! I set the hook hard enough to cross that bass' eyes. He jumped. What a beauty!! Had to be six pounds!

This is the stuff dreams are made of. well, my dreams anyway. Dawn breaking, heart pounding, sweat beading on my forehead. This is why we fish!

I hauled on the rod a little to reel in some line, and thats when he jumped again. This was my undoing. The line snapped, and my beautiful bass was gone. And he had taken my favorite lure with him, leaving me with nothing more than a shot of adrenaline and the memory of a fish that would undoubtedly grow with each telling of the story.

I walked that bank for hours, casting, retrieving, re-casting, cussing. You know. Having fun. I tried other lures, live bait, basically everything I had. No takers. I suspected that my prized bass had warned off his friends.

It was approaching noon, now. If there had been any other bass in the area, they had long since retreated to deeper water and well out of my reach.

Never one to give up, I tied on one of my now dead and stinking nightcrawlers and went straight to the bottom, hoping to at least come away with a catfish for dinner. Another long hour, and still nothing. As the temperature topped the ninety degree mark, and the humidity continued to climb, I decided it was time to take a break. I pushed a stick into the dirt to prop up my rod, and walked the fifty or so yards to my truck.

The sun must have taken its toll, because once I had the air cranked up I nodded off. That fish was already haunting my dreams. That fight played out over and over on a loop. About a half hour later, I woke and strolled back to my spot hoping to find my dinner.

What I found was that someone had walked off with my rod while I was napping. I was disgusted that someone would steal my rod right out of the water, but, at least they had left my tacklebox. On my way back to the truck, I was beginning to doubt that whole fishing versus work argument. As I tossed my tackle box in the back seat, I noticed my spare rod on the floor.

Stubborn man that I am, I grabbed it and tied on a jig. Just one more try before admitting defeat. After about twenty minutes of fruitless jigging, I moved down the bank about a hundred yards and tried again. On the first cast I hooked something BIG.

I set the hook, But nothing pulled back. Just a stick. As I was reeling it in, something bobbed to the surface that was only vaguely stick-like. I reeled a little faster. I could see it clearly now. It was my rod! The day was not a total loss after all.

I looked in amazement at my fishing rod, now half on the bank and half in the water. As I was looking, I would have sworn it twitched a little. Just my imagination. I bent to pick it up, and it did more than twitch. This was an outright jerk! I held on and reeled furiously.

I got that fish to the bank, and picked it up. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Nor, for that matter, has anyone to whom I've told this story. In my hands was an absolutely beautiful largemouth bass with a rubber jig hanging out of one side of his mouth, and my favorite jitterbug stuck to the other side! Veangence was mine!

As far as bass go, I'm strictly a catch and release kind of guy. I've tried to eat them a few times, but they're just too rich for my taste. But I have to say, this one was the tastiest fish I have ever had!!