I pointed to a pile of lilies against the far bank and told him to cast to the little cluster that stuck out from the rest. “Just cast and reel slowly back in”, I said. “You’ll catch some bass there and I’ll catch some sac-au-lait off of this end of the boat”. He gave me a look of doubt but proceeded to cast and reel. Meanwhile I cast to a spot along the far bank, let my jig drop about 2 foot and then started working it back toward me in a very enticing way. I had moved it but a couple of feet when bam, my pole bent over and I put the pressure on. That is as much pressure as you can put on 4 pound test line. I proceeded to fight the nice sac-a-lait to the boat. I reached into the water and lipped him. Looking at Dale looking at me, I said “see”.  He shook his head and said, “yeah, yeah”, and went back to casting and cranking. After putting my fish in the cooler, I tossed my sassy shad back to the same spot and hooked another one, a twin to the first one.  “Can I cast there he asked” pointing toward where I had just pull out my two fish. “No”, I replied, “I want you to catch those bass over by the lilies, like I promised you”. He went back to casting and I pulled another from my end of the boat. Now this was too much for him. “Why are you catching them and I’m not”, he asked. I reached for his rod and said “watch closely”. I sailed the beetle spin towards the lilies and dropped it right on the edge letting it helicopter down a couple of feet and then gave it a couple of light jerks letting it fall between the jerks, wham the bass hit it hard. I fought him to the boat, lipped him and said now you see how it’s done. I just wish I had a picture of the look he gave me.  

     He went back to casting and cranking and I went back to catching sac-a-lait. I landed a few more and all he had done was churn the water. “Let’s move over there maybe”, he suggested. “Why”, I asked, “you haven’t caught those yet.” “I think you caught the only one”, was his reply. “Evidently you weren’t watching when I showed you a while ago. Here, watch this” as I took his rod and cast it right back to the lilies proceeding to hook another one and bring it in. “Ok, now I got it” he said. “Are you sure or do I have to show you again.” Looking at me doubtfully he said, “Well maybe you better show me again.”  Deftly I flung the spinner out and to his amazement hooked another one . “Ok, ok, now I got it, give me my rod” Dale said excitedly. I handed it to him and went back to catching crappie. He just couldn’t believe what was happening. He whipped that rod and beetle until he was blue in the face and still couldn’t get a hit.

     He put the rod down and said, “Now what’s going on, are you pulling my leg or tricking me, or something”. My answer was “no, you were just not watching what I was doing. Are you ready for another lesson?” “Man, I want to catch a fish quit the games.” You could hear the edge in his voice. “Ok here we go again, one more time” I said, “you sure are hard to teach.” I picked up the rod and again sent the spinner off to the lilies and hooked up with another small bass. That blew his mind. He threw his hands up in despair and said, “I guess I’m just not a fisherman”. I couldn’t hold it back any longer and busted out laughing until he was almost ready to toss me overboard.   “Ok, listen up”. I took it slowly this time pointing out every detail of the cast, the drop of the lure, and the retrieve. I got behind him like I was giving him golfing lesson. I made him hold onto my hands while I cast, let the bait sink, and slowly started in back to the boat in a slow rolling action. A bass hit it and I reeled it in. “Now your turn” I said. This time I put my hands on his, letting him do the work and guided him through the motions just like I had done, telling him the details of what he needed to do.  The lure moved about 1 foot and wham he had a bass on. I let him fight it to the boat. “Now, do you think you have it?” “Yeah, I can do it now, I think” was his hesitant reply.

     He did have it and went on, with a little more coaching, to land about 6 bass from that spot, while I caught a respectable number of sac-au-lait from my spot. The nice thing about those small marsh bass, 10 to 14 inches, is they usually co-operate and like to stack up in a good spot. When the fishing slowed we moved on and caught fish all along the canal.

    At one point I noticed his lips were turning blue from him being cold. I suggested that we pull up on the bank and build a small fire to warm ourselves. He sure was game for that. We sat there getting warmer by the minute just talking heart to heart about the job, the wives, the kids, and of course fishing.  Among the things we discussed was why I fish for sac-a-lait when bass was what everyone talked about. Also almost all the TV shows were about bass fishing, like B.A.S.S. which was in its infancy. After a long discourse on sac-a-lait fishing, he asked when we went back to fishing could he try to catch some?  Finally warmed by the fire we put it out and got back into the boat.

    I rigged him up with a jig just like I was using and proceeded to show him how to fish it. I explained the difference in the presentation of it as compared to the spinner bait he had been using. I had already told him some of this while we were warming ourselves, so he had a idea of what I was talking about. At this point, I wasn’t fishing but only working with him to make sure he got it right. “Sac-a-lait just won’t hit anything moving in the water like a bass will,” I explained. “The bite is softer and some time you just don’t feel it but rather see it. You have to become a line watcher.” After about 10 minutes of fishing he was about to give up when he felt the thump. After feeling the savage hits of the bass he wasn’t sure that it was a fish, but lifting his rod he hooked it and reeled in a nice black sac-a-lait which made him as proud as could be. We fished our way down the canal until we finally had enough to call it a day. Dale ended up catching around ten, plus the ten bass he had kept out of the twenty or so he had landed. As it turned out, the fish were not the only ones that got hooked.

     That dude had a smile all around his head. We were glad to be quitting and heading to warmer places as the air temp had dropped about 10 degrees and the north wind had taken over. He was also glad he had done exactly what I said he would, catch some bass.  But better than that, he came away with a completely different attitude about bass fishing. When we got home, I cleaned the fish while he watched and learned. Then we got the grease hot and cooked up a meal. We cooked up some of the bass filets and some of the sac-a-lait and after tasting both of them, he and his wife turned their attention to the sac-a-lait and let the kids eat the bass. At that point he knew why I fished for sac-a-lait. He had seen that it was a different challenge and the taste couldn’t compare.

     Dale couldn’t wait to get to work Monday to tell his story. He also did a little bragging on me for my skills. That one fishing trip was enough to give him the bug for life. Shortly after that he bought first a boat and then etc. etc. etc. Well I think y’all know the trail that he followed. Every now and then I think of my little buddy from way back then and I smile a big wrap around smile too. He moved away a year later and I have only spoken to him once since. I have gotten scattered reports about him from time to time through other people. Man that was 35 years ago. One day I just might try to look him up to live that day all over again and bring us back into our youth.  Writing this story has got me to thinking that maybe I shouldn’t put it off to long. In fact now that I’m thinking of it, I just might make it sooner than later, much sooner.

 PawPaw “Gene”