CATCH OF THE DAY...

Back on the Air Force Base, Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, SD. the thing for a young teen age boy was to go down to the trout ponds... On a daily basis, of course. There were if I can remember correctly two Trout ponds and a Catfish and Largemouth Bass pond. The two trout ponds were linked together by a small creek and when there was a lot of rain they often flooded.

Since we always went, and I am talking every chance we got, me and Tony Lay we would often run out of live bait, and after raiding mom and dads cupboards of all of the sweet corn we had to start using artificial baits.

Speaking of riding bikes. There was this one time that Tony and I were riding home after a good evening of fishing and I accidently stuck my fishing pole into his front tires' spokes. Yeah, it wasn't pretty. Just like in a cartoon or like you would imagine, that poor kid went flying over top of his handle bars and I was out a new fishing rod.

So back to artificial baits. Though we tried to catch worms as often as we could or try to catch as many crawdads as possible. We always managed to run out. That is when we were introduced to artificial baits by one of our friend's dad, Frank. Frank mentioned that his favorite spoon was the Red Daredevil. Upon learning this information and discovering that this was how he caught that 5 pound Rainbow Trout on his wall at home it didn't take long for Tony and I to purchase ours.

Several weeks went by and we not only didn't catch much, we didn't catch sh**. The long hours we spent casting in the sun and staying just wasn't panning out. Frank said that once you catch something on an artificial bait you'll be hooked.

I never believed him, I actually thought he was full of sh** and he just didn't want us catching our limit. Though, I thought he was full of sh**, I still wanted to prove to him and Tony that I was the best fisherman that there ever was. Tony and I tried and tried, and tried and tried with no luck. I started going even more often and staying out even later and I actually started to let my grades slip a little.

Tony and I were fishing down at the creek in between the two ponds when all of a sudden my brother and dad drove by and yelled for me to get my arse home, and Tony wasn't supposed to be out either because he was supposed to be working on his schoolwork while his mom told him.

Just like you would imagine of course, I had to make one last cast and of course I just had to get snagged on the weeds behind me at the same time. I yanked that lure as hard as I could and once again and it was really hooked this time. You know that pissed feeling you get when you are snagged, because you know your gonna loose your favorite lure, but your so pissed that it doesn't matter cause your just pissed and you yank it until your line snaps anyways?

Well that was how pissed I was during that moment when I gave that pole one last tug as hard as I could and heard a snap and a yell at the same time... Yep, you guessed it. I snagged my buddy Tony. You know that sick feeling you get when you do something really bad, but your relieved because you didn't loose your favorite lure? That's the feeling I got.

But at least I knew I didn't loose my favorite lure after all. It was just dangling from Tony Lay's right ear. A few weeks later or so, my mom said I could maybe go fishing again and Mrs. Lay had something that she wanted to give me. It was my Red Daredevil Lure!.. Minus the treble hook! I never got that hook back and I never went fishing with Tony again either, I mean how the hell did they expect me to catch a trout without a hook?