Fate

So it's day two after coming back from the Boundary Waters and the fishing gods do work in very strange ways. We caught fish up there, saw eagles, otters, millions of stars and heard loons make their haunting calls. A great adventure but no hawg smallmouth. I'm all set to go fishing this evening when the shower head busts. It's a special fitting that only comes with that showerhead so fishing is put off while I go to Lowes, get a new one and install it. But I still wanna go fishing D!$#%*T.  So afterwards I decide to run out for just a bit. I grab a rod out of the garage and stuff a zip lock baggie full of curly shads and jigheads in my pocket and go.
At the river I head to this one spot just perfect for a quick trip. A rush of super fast current that has a bit of slow water about the size of my kitchen tucked right up against it. I try several casts into the slow water and no strikes. Then an underhand pitch into the fast stuff, The lure sweeps by too fast and I reel it it trying to get it into the seam. But right in the super fast stuff something hammers it. Okay its a big channel I'm thinking. Then the fish greyhounds out thru the current pulling drag fast. Oh wow I've caught a big hybrid I'm thinking now. Then whoosh the fish is hanging in midair like an old sports afield cover shot and my hearts thumping pretty good. Finally after two more jumps and as many near heart attacks the fish is close to shore. No sliding this guy ashore I'm afraid it would pop the line so I'm down on all fours trying to lip it. A bit of a jump and some wallowing and then the fish is in hand. I'd rushed out so no tape measure and this fish was clearly very very long. I cut a length of fishing line and then carefully snipped it off to the exact length of the fish and tucked it in the ziplock baggie with the curly shads. Later at home I measured the length of line, measured it again and decided right then and there I'll never tell how long that piece of line is. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't believe me so I know nobody else will without a photo that includes a tape measure. She probably isn't as heavy as a fish I caught four years ago but in length she's second only to a monster boundary waters fish from last year and the longest fish in 35 years of fanatical smallmouth fishing around here in Southern Ohio. I'm pretty glad now the showerhead busted and vetoed the trip I really wanted to take tonight.