A couple of "Firsts"

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post in my fishing adventure. School/work has been coming on strong with the end of the year coming up, and my weekends have been spent driving more than fishing, due to visiting Salisbury each of the last two weekends. I have been able to hit some of the local ponds not too far from work, or while in Salisbury. My time there has been "productive" since I have been catching quite a few panfish. But as for time on the water on my kayak, the trips have been few and far between.

A couple of weeks ago I did get a chance to venture out on the kayak with my youngest son. Of my two sons he is the one that enjoys fishing the most. But like any person who fishes he prefers to catch over just waiting for a bite. Nevertheless he and I were successful on our outing on Lake Lariat in southern Calvert County. In fact he was able to catch his first fish of the season, a 12 - 14 in largemouth that was fun to watch him bring into the kayak. You'll have to pardon the photo as he, at the time, was in dire need of a haircut. He caught another bass about the same size as well as a couple of nice bluegills. Everything was returned to the water in hopes to catch them again.


Now as the title of this one says there were a couple of "firsts" recently. The second one was a little more interesting for some. While I was in Salisbury this past weekend, one evening I was trying my luck at panfish on one of the small streams that lead away from Leonard's Mill Pond. I was doing okay catching a few green sunfish when another angler walked by.

I spoke to him and he to me as he continued up the trail. I decided to pack it in and started to walk back to the car. I didn't know that he had turned around as well and had caught up to me. I introduced myself, and he said his name was Robert. He said that he came to this spot pretty much everyday, since his job afforded him a bit of time. He told me about a spot where he had caught larger bluegills, and I followed to it. I didn't have any luck there, but I'll try it again another day. We talked about other fishing we had done, and he just matter of fact mentioned that always looked for fish longer than 10 inches, because "that's where his ruler started." I thought it was odd until I noticed that he was rolling up his sleeve to show me his tattoo on his forearm.

His fishing "measuring tape" was a tattoo of a ruler, which started at the tip of his middle finger, going from 10 inches up to 22 inches. It was at that point I realized that I had met my FIRST TRUE FISH NERD, other than myself. I thought it was pretty cool.

Until next time … tight lines!