Bassaholic

I admit; I am a recovering bassaholic. There were times that I couldn’t keep from bass fishing. I skipped school, missed church and even made excuses to keep me from work, just to go bass fishing. I spent literally thousands of dollars and countless days pursuing the black bass. I was pretty good at it too. The trophies I received for tournament victories now gather dust in the attic. The memories I have of bass fishing make me wonder just why was I so addicted?

Black bass are the most popular game fish in our country. They can be caught in virtually every body of fresh water, be it a small farm pond or a large reservoir. Bass put up a decent fight and they are good to eat. Although catch and release bass fishing is now the politically correct way to treat the resource, a good fried bass fillet is still hard to beat.

If someone would have told me twenty years ago that someday I wouldn’t be mad at the bass, I wouldn’t have believed them. I was totally eaten up with bass fishing. But something happened that changed me and I am a different man. I am no longer addicted to black bass fishing.

What I have now is an even worse addiction. Just ask my family, friends and co-workers. The worst part about what I have, is that it is highly contagious. I have never taken drugs, but I have become hooked on something that has to be better than any drug there is.

About eight years ago, I came down with what my friends call “saltwater fever” and I am no longer thinking about bass fishing all the time. As I write this column, I fight the urge to head to the coast to cure my fever. It is not the smell of saltwater spray, the sound of noisy gulls mooching a free meal, or the serenity of the bay that cures the fever. It is the vicious strike from a speckled trout on a top water lure or a battle with a redfish as he makes that ever predictable second run, that cures the fever.

Before I came down with “saltwater fever” I thought that saltwater was only good to use for soaking feet. But fellow saltwater addicts kept insisting that freshwater was only good to wash your boat with. I was convinced that saltwater anglers were misdirected and weird and worse yet, I thought I would never be like them. I was wrong.

When given the choice to fish fresh or saltwater, I now choose saltwater every time. The fish are plentiful, easy to catch, they put up a great fight and one of the best things I like about is that you never know what you have on the other end of your line.

If you have a bass fishing background, you will find saltwater fishing to be much less challenging in regards to locating fish. That may be one reason why participation in saltwater fishing is out performing fresh water. It may also be that fish in saltwater are much easier to catch and I think we all would rather go catching than just go fishing.