This is the story about a slightly overweight but oddly nice looking fisherman and his Summer of discovery and near fatal heat strokes. The fact that he needs about $100 of tackle from Bass Pro Shops is merely a seasonal coincidence.
The Summer of 2007 started off in a normal fashion.work a few hours in the morning, stop for a 65,000 calorie lunch, drive home half asleep at one in the afternoon from said calories, arrive home in a daze and a goatee covered in slobber. I would then hook up the boat and fish a few hours. One night, as I was cruising the parts of the internet that don't require you to enter your age, I happened upon a banner ad for this thing called Bounty Fishing. I read with interest and decided this fits right into my daily schedule anyway. what the heck. I am lucky to fish one of the best lakes in the Southeast US and maybe even the whole country, so I knew I could be competitive. I entered with my brother, and off we went. The first week I fished, I caught a 24 1/2 inch fish on Monday and upgraded on Sunday with a 9 pound 2 ounce bass over 25 inches. Good enough for first place and $1,000. That was easy. Little did I know that every day for the rest of the Summer was going to be hotter than a lap full of coffee. That weather pattern sort of messed up our fishing, and especially the places on the lake we fish. With the promise of riches dangling in front us like a minnow on a hook, we went exploring. We wound up finding fish...and lots of them, in places and depths we previously would have never looked. Without the motivation of cold hard cash, we would have chalked it up to a bad day due to all of the normal excuses such as wrong moon phase, high pressure, that one Vienna sausage that was not as pink as the rest, etc. Bounty Fishing helped already successful fisherman, become even more successful. Competition can be a good thing. While winning cash was nice (my wife said thank you bounty people), the entire experience was very worthwhile. I learned that to post on the Bounty Fishing Forums you have to be fluent with the word EH?, it's never over till midnight, there are some big fish up North and one member looks just like Humpty Dumpty.
I am looking forward to the Fall and catching more big fish to enter when I can. I just have to wait for my weight to stabilize and all the hook wounds to heal. Thank you Bounty Fishing for a good time.
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