Jon's First Post

I'd like to thank Pat for letting me do some posting here on his website. When Paul Greene first mentioned the idea of blogging about Naugas and stuff, I didn't think much of it. Shoot. Who'd ever think that folks would be much interested in what I have to say about that anywho. It's kinda like when my Daddy took me Strout fishin for the first time out at Cotter's Creek.

Who boy, I tell you what. That was a fine trip. We started out before dawn all decked out. Daddy had on his fishin vest with all the pockets and places to hold stuff. He brought his hip waders too although he said he didn't think they'd be much of a reason to get that deep into the water. I had on one of those floppy fishin hats and overalls and an old padded sweatshirt with a pair of wellies to keep my feet dry. Once we had the pickup packed with all the gear and poles and lunch basket, we was ready to go. Them Strouts weren't goin to stand a chance.

It sounds excitin now but I'll tell you, I wasn't all that excited when it was happenin. First of all I had to get out of bed so early even the brids were still asleep. Then I had to gulp down some sausage and eggs before my eyes were half open. It's amazin that I was even dressed what with the rushing and moving fast to get out of there. Did get somemore shuteye though while we was on our way. Of course once we got to the creek we had to do it all in reverse what with getting everything out of the car and setting ourselves up on the creek bank.

Daddy had his favorite spot, right by the curve of the south bank where the creek turned into a lazy S and slowed down to a crawl. Always had good luck in that spot, catchin two or three Strout and even the occasional Chain. Them Chain are feisty critters.Always put up a good fight even if you's got to be specially careful when you clean and cook 'em 'cause of all them bones. But still ...

Anyways ... what with it being early and me being young ... there wasn't no way I was enjoying myself even after we picked a good spot on the bank, the hooks were baited, and we had our lines in the water. After all, the sun was just about creepin over the horizon and I was supposed to be all warm and snug in bed. Boy oh boy ... talk about wrongheaded thinkin.

Well it didn't take more than just a couple of minutes before my line was struck and struck hard. Near pulled the pole right out of my hand. Probably should have let it go but nooooo. I clamped down on that thing by instinct and before I knew it I was half pulled, half flung into the creek by the force of the fish on the other end of that line. Lucky for me the creek is real shallow at that spot ... probably why Daddy chose it ... but still there I was being pulled through the water flat on my belly, barely ble to keep my face up so I could breath. Daddy had to chase me 200 feet or so just to grab ahold of me and keep me from being pulled into deeper water.

Don't know why I didn't drop that pole ... sheer instinct I suppose ... or maybe I was just too stubborn for my own good. Weren't no way no fish was gonna beat me ... even ifn I didn't want to be there. So there I was soppin wet, holdin on to that pole for dear life as Daddy dragged me back up out of the creek and onto the bank. He helped me fight that critter for almost a half hour before we got it close enough to the shore for him to net. Biggest fish I'd ever seen ... still ranks up there with the bigger ones I've caught since then. And then it happened. There I was ... the sun comin up ... soppin wet ... fishin pole in hand and a huge fish in Daddy's net and it hit me. This was fun! I was havin the time of my life even with the cold and the wet and everything.

Guess maybe that's kinda like this bloggin stuff. Before you know it you're havin a good time just chatting with folks and sharing stuff like this. I look forward to doin this again.

See you folks next time. Jon