An Evening of Relaxation

There are never-ending projects on any farm (as all you other farmers know) and sometimes you need to take an evening and take a break.

Such was this past week when one day I came home from work and Steven said, "Let's go fishing! The fish are biting!" (He had determined it was perfect fishing weather by observing how the fish in our stock tank were acting). There was a storm in the forecast, the barometric pressure was changing, and it was indeed a perfect evening for fishing.

So we quickly loaded up the tackle and poles, dug a few worms, and headed down to our ponds. (I always enjoy an excuse to go fishing).

Steven was exactly right -- they were definitely biting. Seems we got nibbles or bites every time we dropped anything into the water.

Most of the time, we seemed to keep catching small-size bass -- not big enough to eat, although fun to keep hauling in. We would release these further down the ponds, to keep from catching the same ones over and over.

I caught this little pretty sun perch (which we threw back, of course) but shortly after that I happened to get a strike by a large fish -- we know his size because he jumped high and thrashed-- and promptly broke my line! (I sure hope he's not still swimming around somewhere with a hook).

Anyway, as he broke the line, my bobber went flying, so Steven decided to try to "snag" the bobber with his line to bring it back ashore. He had a top-floating popper on his, and he would cast across and try to get the lure to catch on the float as he reeled his line back across it.

He was unsuccessful in snagging the float, though, because about that time his line got hit by this beauty! :

We took this nice fish home and broiled him for supper! He was superb! (oh, and we eventually go the float, as well - as it drifted back to shore!) We were there later than planned and it was very dark by the time we drove back through the pasture for home, but we certainly had a wonderful time!