[briansnat]

Back at Green Turtle on July 4th and we had an hour to fish before we had to be somewhere. Arrived at three and put the canoe in. I bagged three cookie cutter 1 lb bass on a wacky rigged Senko with a small shaky jig head and my GF was catching nothing.

She is fairly new to fishing so usually I try to give her cranks, topwater and other lures that are easy to work. Cast and retreive, nothing too technical. She's getting nothing.

So now its's about 3:40 and she wants to catch a fish, so I tie on a Texas rig RT Thumper for her with an 1/8 oz bullet weight and give her a quick primer on how to detect a bite on a plastic. Soon she pulls in her Thumper and complains that it is "off the hook". It was obvious that a bass grabbed it and she had no clue. Just not feeling the bite.

So a few minutes later she is screaming "I have something" , but she still doesn't get the concept of hooking the fish, so after a few seconds it falls off. I cast in the same area and pull in a three pounder. I joked that I caught the fish she lost and explained how to hook a bass using T rigged plastics. Now it is almost 4:00. I mention that it's time to leave and she says "We are not leaving until I catch a fish".

Almost on cue, her rod is doubled over. I was trying to tell her how to loosen the drag, because I knew the rod I gave her had only 6 lb test line, but she is too excited to listen. A few minutes later, with a litte coaching, she brings a healthy four pounder next to the boat and I netted it for her. I didn't want to take the chance of trying to lip land it and miss her first big bass.

After releasing it she said "I've always enjoyed the idea of fishing, but catching is much more exciting". I think I have a keeper. I only wish I realized that 40 years ago when we first started dating. But 40 years later and after 30 years apart, she is my best catch.