No Pole

[danmmc14]

Several yerars ago while I was frog gigging with two friends of mine from my canoe the craziest thing happened. We had been one the water since about 8:00 PM. The frogs had been plentiful and we had been having a great time. Only problem was that the beaver kept splashing and the trees had a few snakes in the branches. So by 2:30 AM our nevers were a little jumpy to say the least. We had shifted to the small lake on the other side of the road. As we were paddeling onlong the bank we passed an area with no frogs. A large boulder ran down and into the water. No mud, no frogs. As I stuck my paddel in the water to take a stroke, there was a large splash, and a large black object struck me in the chest. I screamed, my friend Phil in the front of the boat jumped up on the bow and was balanced there trying to deciede 'wether to jump to the bank or stay with the boat. My other friend Steve, was sitting in the middle of the bottom of the canoe, trying to figure out what was flopping around under him. We were all flipping out and trying to get a flashlight on. We finnaly did and low and behold, there was a 5 and 1/2 pound small mouth bass in the bottom of the boat.<br> Well, to say the least, were all glad it was not a snake or Lord knows what! But we deciede that we had enough frog legs and 5 pounds of bass did not hurt any. So we packed it up and went and had a great breakfast. We later on decieded that what had happened was that the fish had been "sleeping" just below the surface and when I stuck the paddle in the water it scared the fish and it jumped toward deep water. Only problem was, I was between it and safety.<br>If anyone else has ever heard of or had something like this happen to them, lets us know.<br>Thanks, Dan<br><br>

[WeSellGigs]

danmmc14 I can definitely relate to your story, when I was 13 years old I too had a similar experience. My dad and two younger brothers where fishing at our family pond and we were having trouble fishing from the bank because of some weeds and cat tails that were in our way. Of course being a young kid I volunteered to go out in the canoe and knock them down. So I jumped into the canoe and paddled out and began to hit the weeds with my paddle. On the first swing something jumped out of the water and into the canoe, well… about that same time I almost jumped into the water because it nearly scared me to death. After realizing it was a bass and not a water moccasin the bragging rights were on! Of course I went around the rest of the day/week bragging that I did not need a pole to catch fish. I was so good they just jump into the boat with me. I was glad my dad and brothers were there to witness what had happened, because until something like that has happened to you it’s extremely hard to believe a story like ours.

BTW - I'm 36 now and we still talk about that day.

Thanks,
Chris