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Here's another one (a personal favorite of mine):
My dad and I used to fish freshwater regularly, up until his passing in 2001. One of our regular trips was to Nickerson State Park for a long weekend of camping and fishing in a few of the ponds in that park.
We were fishing from a 12 foot pram/jonboat on a Sunday. Keep in mind that our days ran from sun-up to sun-down, without setting foot on land until it was time to head back to camp. We had been having an average days' action with rainbows, browns, bass and plenty of 4-6 inch perch. My dad liked using his flyrod, with sinking line while I preferred spinning gear. We were nearing the end of our day as well as our bait, and we were a little tired of all the little yellow perch we were getting (too many to count).
My father had just gooten a bite and was pulling up one line when he began getting hits on his other, so I offered to finish pulling up the first line so he could concentrate on the second. The fish on the line I was handling was a typically 4-6 inch perch, but when I pulled it up alongside the boat, a HUGE smallmouth came up and inhaled the perch and began swimming back down. I had let go of the line (out of surprise at seing the bass) and informed my father of what had just happened. I quickly gave the line a tug, with the rare chance of hooking the bass with the hook that was in the perch, but no such luck. The perch popped out of the bass' mouth and the fish was gone. (or so I thought....)
Dad had been fishing near the bottom of this particular area of the pond, and had been getting hits from the perch that were down there, when he announces that he's snagged on the bottom, or worse, on the anchor line. He was pumping the rod like he was trying to jiggle it free, and I told him to stop for a second. He asked me "Why?" and I replied "You can't be snagged on the anchor line, because it's behind me, not on your end of the boat!"
I asked him to stop moving the rod for a second, at which point we could definitely see the rod tip jerk up and down, the mark of a fishes head shake. His rod was literally doubled at this point.
It took him at least 15 minutes to fight the fish to the boat on his fly rod, but when it was over, he was the proud owner of a HUGE smallmouth that would go approx. 5+lbs. I have a picture of him holding the fish under his chin and the tail resting on his lap.
I'll bever forget him saying "I'm stuck on the anchor line, and then the look on his face when I told him that the anchor was BEHIND me!
That's another of my stories and I'm sticking with it as well!
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