My First Largemouth

by Nikki
(Michigan, USA)

The first time I've ever been bass fishing was May of 2010. I wasn't sure of what to expect; I'd been fishing before, but it was when i was three or so (I'm now nineteen)so, i couldn't remember what it was like. Memorial Day weekend, my boyfriend, Cody, and i headed to Fletcher's Pond in northern Michigan, the pond is gorgeous, serene, and filled with stumps.
We'd been fishing for three days straight and aside from a few taunting nibbles, i had absolutely no action on my line. Cody, on the other hand, had caught a beautiful 18 inch that had given him a fight, it almost pulled his pole out of his hands; along with about ten 15 to 16 inch bass. I was disappointed and quickly getting discouraged about fishing when we'd decided to head in, but first we'd do one last cast. It was our last day fishing and I hadn't caught anything! I cast out far into the water as the sun was setting, the sky was a deep purple. Slowly, I began reeling in my line (which had a three hook black and yellow dangling from it). Suddenly, without warning, there was a sharp jerk on my line. I gasped and tipped my rod up, setting the hook, and began reeling quickly - pausing only to tip up. I was so excited, this would be my keeper! The fish thrashed and fought, but i kept on reeling then as quickly as it had started, my line stopped dead in the water and went slack, my heart sank. I was snagged on an underwater stump. Cody and i quickly shuffled around the boat, stepping on a box of worms and nearly dumping ourselves into the water. He pulled up the motor and paddled us over to the stump, without a second thought, reached in the water and pulled the stump apart and freed my line. In an instant he grabbed my line and hoisted out of the water and there was my bass.
"It's a keeper!" Cody smiled, "Babe, you caught your first keeper!" I smiled madly and watched as he measured my bass to make sure. It came in at 14.5 inches.
It was so thrilling to catch that fish, after that we headed in and I cleaned it up. I'm already excited to head back out on the boat next year, I guess it's safe to say I'm hooked (Haha).