First catch, no photo.

Yesterday afternoon late, after 5 pm, I walked down to the farm dam with a fly rod and some flies and tried my luck. The rod I took was a 9 foot, very fast action and stiff 3 weight, loaded with 4 weight line, casts like a dream. This might sound a bit light for bass, but  you can cast all day with it. The rod was a gift from my brother in law Grant who built it from MHX, carbon fibre blanks from Mudhole in the USA.

It was a warm summers evening with a thunderstorm approaching and the water was like glass. Bass were very active in the shallows among the reeds jumping and chasing insects. After about 40 minutes of fishing I got my first take, but lost it when the fish jumped. (Have to sharpen my hooks) Ten minutes later in almost the same spot a bass grabbed my size 14 muddlers minnow and dived, I gave it a second or two and set the hook. Well and truly hooked there was no escape. For a moment it felt like I'd hooked a trout, not the normal large mouth way of heading for some obstruction or water weeds, but a determined run for open water, and fighting right to the end.

After a minute or two I lifted a 2lb plus small mouth bass from the water, a sleek well conditioned fish. First small mouth I've caught in about 30 years. The rod did not have quite enough backbone to lift the fish so I had to grab the leader and pull it out. And guess what? the cameras memory card was lying at home instead of being in the camera, so no evidence. Not the first time I've forgotten it.