Another Big Fish

Today's fishing started out in a interesting way, but I'll save that for another post.

I eventually worked my way over to the Bell Pond  again. I wasn't expecting to do as well as I did yesterday. After all, the conditions were markedly different. But I am always willing to put in the time and sooner or later something good may happen. The perch were active again, but mostly they were small ones. I caught who knows how many.

After cutting off the smaller Woolly Bugger style streamer I committed to the Double Deceiver and fished it from one side of the dam to the other. As I reached the far side I fan cast, covering as much water as possible. The, finally, I got a take. It wasn't a particularly strong take, and from the first twenty seconds of the fight I didn't think it was a big fish. It came right towards me, rather slowly, And came up as I eased it in. Then it made a smooth arcing L shape in front of me and just went parallel to the shore away from me to the left and there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it. After a bit of work it did a slow, thrashing jump and I saw it or the first time. It was a very big chain pickerel. As anyone who fishes for these things knows, they fight like trucks. It took a long time for me to land it. But when I did, I was impressed! It taped out at 26 inches, making it my biggest ever of the species. Unfortunately my camera batteries died part way through the photo shoot so I didn't get all the pictures I wanted, but plenty enough to see what a great fish it is! He went back violently, giving me a good shower. 

I always manage to catch some nice fish before the year closes out, but this year is special in that category!