Blood and Gold - an excerpt

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Corey
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Blood and Gold - an excerpt
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Bookman Old Style, serif"><font size="5" style="font-size: 20pt"><b>Greater Redhorse</b></font></font></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Bookman Old Style, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 16pt"><i>Moxostoma valencienessi</i></font></font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span style="font-size:16px;"><font face="Bookman Old Style, serif"><i>It was rock bass I was after when it happened. There were some big, chunky specimens of rock bass in this little creek, and my six-foot ultralight was a perfect weapon to battle them with. As I waded the stream, each pocket of deeper water held a few scrappy fighters, hunkered down by a sunken log or nestled amongst the ubiquitous limestone blocks. As my sojourn down the creek continued, I made a point of casting to the upstream side of every sunken log I saw. This was the thinking that got me into trouble. A particularly deep pool, slammed up against a vertical stone cliff, presented a real opportunity. Perched on a ledge on the cliff face, ten feet above the water, I could see the shape of a sunken log down there &ndash; the perfect spot for a jumbo rock bass to hide. I flipped my &lsquo;crawler right at the upstream end and tensed myself, waiting for the telltale white flash of a rock bass strike. That&rsquo;s when the &ldquo;log&rdquo; swam forward and ate my worm, and things got very interesting very fast. A narrow ledge is a fine place to fight and land a rock bass, even on ultralight tackle. There&#39;s good footing, and plenty of room to swing the fish up.&nbsp; But whatever this fish was, it wasn&#39;t a rock bass, and it wasn&rsquo;t going to be subdued easily. It tore out line so fast I thought the reel would catch fire, and shook its mighty head in powerful jerks. It stirred up the mud in this tiny creek until the water was roiling and brown. The key turning point in the battle was when I slid down a brushy, near-vertical bank into the water while managing not to drop my fishing rod, snap my line, or break my neck. I was scraped, bruised, and bleeding by the end of the fight, but it was worth it. Twenty-eight inches of Greater Redhorse is worth quite a lot of suffering and pain. In the net, the fish shone like blood and gold. Once freed, it nosed back into the depths, almost out of sight, until it looked like a sunken log again.</i></font></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Corey F&#39;ing Geving</p>
perkinsdonald
perkinsdonald's picture
great excerpt!
More please.......

 

 

The gods do not subtract the alotted span in men's lives the hours spent in fishing.

andy
andy's picture
Great story brother

Reminds me of why I care about Roughfishing...thanks.

J Dunfee
J Dunfee's picture
Dude, this damn near gave me

Dude, this damn near gave me a boner. Can I say that? Ahh, whatever.

Great, great, GREAT read. Incredible really. Put me right there. Wish to god I could write like that with the stuff I've got in the works. Having a tiny bit of personal experience, both tragic and comic, with the featured-star-species makes it understandable on a level I don't have the words for.

Bravo Corey, superb stuff.

 

Jknuth
Jknuth's picture
Thats Friggan Beautiful! 

Thats Friggan Beautiful! 
Thats what its all about.

Hengelaar
Hengelaar's picture
Altogether Fitting and Proper

Awesome: Writing, adventure, discovery, sfeertekening.

Not Awesome: It's February now.

Fishn sure is neat

Eli
Eli's picture
As DT would say: thats TITS!

As DT would say: thats TITS!

Eli

 

 

Mike B
Mike B's picture
Adventure writing

I really dig stories like this. Thanks Corey.

mike b

TonyS
TonyS's picture
One of the best fishing

One of the best fishing stories I've read in a long time!  Fantastic! 

Cast_and_Blast
Cast_and_Blast's picture
That was a poetic way of

That was a poetic way of putting it.  Nice story!

Dr Flathead
Dr Flathead's picture
Naw, D.T. would say that was

Naw, D.T. would say that was "mint" or "titties, man".  Gotta love things the elderly say...

 

Cool write Corey.  Wish spring would hurry up and get here now.

the pyromaniac
the pyromaniac's picture
:::raising a glass:::

:::raising a glass:::

 

That was a great read, and really speaks to why we all love roughfishing!  Share more stuff like this, and I'll be one very happy gringo!

 

 

 

Let there be fire!

Tyler W
Tyler W's picture
Not fair

I don't see how you can post that while everything is locked in ice. I was trying to buy night crawlers before I remembered that all the rivers are frozen.

 

Jason E.
Jason E.'s picture
I might just have to head to

I might just have to head to the place where the upper Mississippi never freezes and fulfill my craving for some sucker fishing after reading that post.