Fishing Rod Report

[blas]

The weather was perfect, water slightly choppy, and the wind with a soft whistle off the fishing line. Within fifteen minutes my buddy Van Don landed two slot reds. I was still tweaking my reel and looking my tackle over. I tend to start slow and gradually fish the hardest a man can concentrate. Finally I wet my line with a 4 inch mullet weighed down by a º oz egg weight. Van Don has a rod in the water with the same style rig as mine sitting in a rod holder while heís throwing spoons to the other side of the boat. Van Donís baited rod and reel starts dancing in the rod holder and Don tells me to grab the rod while he reels his other line in. I pull his rod out of the holder and set my rod where his was. As I start reeling his line in my rod starts jumping all over the rod holder. Within a millisecond my rod dragged, bent over as far as the rod can go and boom-devastation. My rod met the water. The holder my rod was sitting in was ripped in half and my rod and reel were headed down towards the bottom of the Mouth of The Brazos River. The fish I was reeling in spit the hook out while I was mourning the loss of my rod and reel. Seeking comfort was the hardest thing for me to do knowing that my favorite rod and reel were gone. If anybody knows me they know my rods and reels also. Those puppies are rinse and oiled after every trip in preparation for the next outing. I managed to gain my composure and grabbed my backup. I rigged it up and fished without using a rod holder for the next two hours. Van Don and I limited out on Red fish and we were on our way home. I still was not feeling any better knowing my favorite rod and reel would stay behind submerged in saltwater. As we are docking the boat and loading it on the trailer a couple of guys are launching thereís next to us. They get off there truck a little rowdy and ask the question every fisherman wants to know. What did you catch and where? Without hesitation my buddy Van Don gives him the hole location and the extra live mullet we have leftover. We show them the cooler with six slot redfish. We point out the location where the mullet are hanging out if they happen to need more bait. Off they go on their journey and off we go to fillet some fish. Itís time for school to let the kids out so we drive by and pick up my son Aaron. He mentions that he wants to catch some fish too. Without thinking twice we go back out to the water and let Aaron fish. As we are pulling up to our fishing hole we see our rowdy ( - - blocked - - ) we met earlier sitting right where we told them. We anchor close enough to talk to them but far away enough not to mess up there fishing. They say they are catching one sand trout after another. We tell them to throw a little closer to the bank, almost out of the water. They do as we say and bam! The fight is on! They only catch 2 reds and they have to go. Suddenly the question a desperate fisherman wants to here. ìDid you guys happen to lose a fishing rod?î YES!!!YES!!! We lost a fishing rod. How much do you want for it? Nothing, we dragged it off the bottom. Itís still in the rod holder. They ( - - blocked - - ) near the boat and handed the rod and reel over to us as they were going home. Shimano Sedona 2500 on a 7í Cajun Special Spin. The reel, locked and full of saltwater. The rod, scratched but in good shape. My pride, bruised but not the first time. Me with my Cajun Special Spin, elation!!!!!!!!!!!! That, my friend, is my fishing story.

[Kistler1]

Here is a picture of a red fish that Blas caught when I had the chance to go fishing with him. it was a big one. This one was 39" long. Blas put it to me that day. I had a great time.