02-14-2003, 08:36 PM
[cool]Not a good visual. Brings to mind some of the other interesting things I have found in fish over the years. Probably one of the things I have found the most...in several species of fish...are undigested plastic worms...with and without hooks. Probably the most unique was a whole wristwatch...silver with an expando band...in the gut of a ling cod, off the Santa Barbara area. No, it was not a Timex and no it was not still ticking.
My best "true tall tale" was of a big rainbow I caught in Warm River, Idaho, when I was first learning to fly fish as a youngster. My dad had given me two grey hackle yellow flies. That's it. I spied the rainbow holding between two lines of water weeds, over light gravel. In spite of my youthful excitement I made a good enough cast to float the fly over his nose and he tipped up and sucked it in. I lost out to excitement then (as I still do sometimes) and snapped the fly off in the fish's upper lip. He wiggled and shook his head a few times, and then settled back into his old lair.
I had been told about "resting" a fish, so I stepped back away from the stream for awhile to allow the fish to settle down, and to keep from having a heart attack myself. Maybe fifteen minutes later (but it coulda been several hours) I forced myself to be calm and to present my second fly to the once stuck fish. About the tenth cast, it hesitantly moved up and ate it. This time I just tightened the line and held on. Luckily, I landed the fish and retrieved my first fly, along with the second.
I've heard similar stories over the years from other guys who hesitate to put their credibility on the line with such a preposterous tale...but, we're all fishermen. Who would ever doubt a fellow angler?
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My best "true tall tale" was of a big rainbow I caught in Warm River, Idaho, when I was first learning to fly fish as a youngster. My dad had given me two grey hackle yellow flies. That's it. I spied the rainbow holding between two lines of water weeds, over light gravel. In spite of my youthful excitement I made a good enough cast to float the fly over his nose and he tipped up and sucked it in. I lost out to excitement then (as I still do sometimes) and snapped the fly off in the fish's upper lip. He wiggled and shook his head a few times, and then settled back into his old lair.
I had been told about "resting" a fish, so I stepped back away from the stream for awhile to allow the fish to settle down, and to keep from having a heart attack myself. Maybe fifteen minutes later (but it coulda been several hours) I forced myself to be calm and to present my second fly to the once stuck fish. About the tenth cast, it hesitantly moved up and ate it. This time I just tightened the line and held on. Luckily, I landed the fish and retrieved my first fly, along with the second.
I've heard similar stories over the years from other guys who hesitate to put their credibility on the line with such a preposterous tale...but, we're all fishermen. Who would ever doubt a fellow angler?
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