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Bill Marchel: Wading into a memorable fishing night
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BRAINERD - Monday evening I wade-fished for bass on a small lake not far from town. It had been a while since I had last waded for bass, long enough that my wading shoes had thoroughly dried and were no longer funky. That's a bad sign.
I caught a few bass during the first hour, and then as the sun neared the western horizon, the action increased.
When I set the hook on the next bass, it vaulted skyward. It was a big bass, but it momentarily became tangled in a jungle of bulrushes. Then the fish swam quickly in my direction and leaped, nearly hitting me in the face. Had my waders been baggier, the bass might have landed in them. Ultimately, the bass measured just shy of twenty inches -- probably not quite five pounds.
Suddenly, it seemed, it was dark. When a woodcock flew bat-like from the woods, I clipped my lure to an eyelet and waded toward my truck.
In roughly two hours I had caught about 15 bass, including two over 19 inches. En route, I was entertained by a lightning display far to the north. No one, I reasoned, had a better Monday evening than I did.
Bill Marchel, a wildlife photographer and outdoors columnist, lives near Brainerd, Minn.
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