First fish of the day. While I have been catching fish on Ricky Ricardo and Little Ricky recently they weren't working when I first got there. Switched to a purple worm, tossed it out and got this duder on the first cast.
Then after a while I went back to Little Ricky and got this guy.
Lost a small mouth at the shoreline on Little Ricky, but then I saw this guy off in the depths and decided to throw him a live worm when he wasn't interested in eating the lure. Got him, but it was a comedy of errors. First, the dude was BIG! And fat as hell. I measured him and he was approximately 22-23". Seriously, doesn't look it in the pic but he was. I saw he wasn't hooked very well so I tried grab him but he kept freaking out. As I tried to raise him out of the water for a better angle he gator rolled and the line cut deep into my finger (fair enough considering I had a hook in his lip). As I repositioned he gator rolled again and the line snapped and back into the lake he went. But I wasn't letting that fool get away, I shot my arm into the lake, nearly falling in, and grabbed him with my bare hands and pulled him up. That's right, I'm soooo bad ass. I took this one pic (you can see the hook in his mouth with the bit of line still attached just below where it snapped) and then he immediately thrashed again and landed in the grass (the lose hook went flying). I wanted to make sure he got back safe so I didn't take any more pictures and put him in the water. He took off like a bat out of hell, strong as hell. I was happy and it was all worth it, sliced finger and all.
Then I saw this guy waiting outside the drainage pipe that goes under the road so I got on my belly and grabbed him from the rocky bottom. Not sure what type of turtle he is, maybe a stinkpot (yes, that's a real type of turtle). Haven't caught a turtle like that since I was a kid. It was fun.
Overall it was a great morning. And Jane seemed to have fun too.
