Today, at Briery Creek Lake on Route 15 between Farmville and Keyville, Va, I caught and successfully landed the largest fish I've ever caught in all my 44.5 years of life. Stevie Ray was with me. It was unseasonably warm today - mid-70s. I worked from home and picked Stevie up from the after-school program after stopping in Kingsville to buy a dozen medium minnows and packing a "snack bag" with a Go-Tart (his favorite), some cookies, and bottled water. The fishing poles and tackle boxes remain in the trunk of the car until Thanksgiving or so - ready to be put to use on a moment's notice.
And so late this afternoon, from shortly before until shortly after sunset, life found Stevie Ray and I on the water-side of the Briery Creek dam, fishing poles in hand, talking, fishing, doing father-son stuff - man stuff - together. Watching our corks. Stevie turns five in a couple weeks so I have to watch both corks. But that's really, really ok.
I was watching Stevie's cork and thinking we needed to be wrapping up. It may be unseasonably warm but it's still February in Virginia and we were both under-dressed for being in the wind by the water. I looked back at my cork and couldn't find it in the windy waves and sky reflecting on the water, so I reeled a couple times to tighten up my line. I still couldn't pick out the cork so I pulled... and something pulled back - hard.
The drag slipped on the old Zebco 33 and the six-foot rod bent at a healthy angle. I had a fish.
I told Stevie and he started giggling and was more excited than me. I was enjoying his joy and excitement more than catching the largest fish I ever caught.
And then she jumped.
Oh. My. Gosh! It was like a boat or bait commercial. A large-mouthed bass coming out of the water, mouth wide, body flipping back and forth in an effort to dislodge the hook. I thought Stevie was going to fly away! "That's Joe Nailer!" he yelled. Joe Nailer is my brother Mark's name for the mythical large-mouth that lurks the depths of many local farm ponds and lakes. I'd shared that with Stevie Ray when we started fishing together last season and he remembered. And he was right.
I had caught Joe Nailer. Or, more accurately, Jo Nailer.
The fight took two or three minutes. You don't "horse" six-pound test line, you play and guide and cajole and coerce and beg and plead. A fish weighing much less than six pounds can break six-pound test if you force the issue. When "Jo" came near the shore she turned and made one more dive for the deep. When she rolled I saw white on the belly that was at least 14 inches long - and promptly joined Stevie on Cloud Nine.
She finally tired and I lifted / dragged her onto to the shore. The line broke just above the cork and I reached down and caught the cork in one hand and Jo's mouth in the other. She's full of eggs, Jo is. She looks like a bag of sugar and weighs as much or more. I don't have a tape measure or bucket and I refuse to put her on a stringer. So I hold her up and break out my flip phone and take a picture. She's so long I cannot hold her far enough away to get all of her in the frame, but I take the shot anyway.
Lacking a proper measure I hold her up to my arm. She measures from my fingertips to halfway up my bicep. I can measure that when I get home to determine her length.
Stevie wants to touch her but she's been out of the water for 30 seconds. I tell him where he can touch - in case she flips I don't want him getting stuck by fins. He rubs her side and I put her back into the water and we watch her swim away.
I get Stevie set to fish for a few more minutes and break out the phone to send the picture to Christy's Gmail account.
And there's no picture.
My phone requires me to push Save after taking and veiwing the picture. Folding it closed discards the image. Forever. Damn you Verizon and your cheesy phones! If I can see the picture it should be on my phone! But it's not. Bad interface, bad.
Dejected, I return home to measure my arm. 19 - 20 " from fingertips to mid-bicep. Cool.
Go lay your eggs Jo. Thanks for the memories. And Verizon, hire a &*(%^$ interface designer!
Love,
Andy