AFTER 5 GENERATIONS- FISH OF THE YEAR IS CAUGHT
Spring and summer can’t come fast enough for Scott Williamson and his family. It’s time to go fishing and make memories. Wait I am getting ahead of the story I want to tell.
It was Saturday, June 29, 2013 late afternoon just one day into a 9-day vacation at our lake cottage and the rain just would not stop. Our commitment went unchanged. (If you only fish on sunny days you just wouldn’t understand). This was father and son going bass fishing on a small lake in northern Indiana. This was tradition! On a lake where 5 generations of Williamson’s have fished and made so many memories, they sometimes roll off our tongues like reading a book.
Little did we know that today we were going to add another chapter to the book! We started off like normal working our way around the lake like we had done many times before. The bite was slow but we continued on with our top water lures because any minute something was going to happen. The rain was cool but when the wind started it was beginning to look like this was not going to be one of our better days. Halfway around the lake we had caught a couple of short fish and that was it.
I was running the trolling motor as we turned another corner another good spot went by without any good strikes. I started talking about going in for dinner, but we fished on. Then as I started to make another turn I heard that sound that every bass fisherman knows, the sound of a large bass busting on a top water lure. Then my son Scott sets the hook hard and the water begins to boil. I grabbed the net as I watched my son battle this fish. I realize this fish is not just big this one is huge. As I continue to watch I see how skillful Scott is reacting to every trick this fish throws at him. Run after run I watch my son wearing this fish down but it was not much closer to the boat than when it first hit. Then the fish turned and was running toward the lily pads. I thought oh no! That’s when Scott did the unthinkable, he put his hand on the spinning spool to apply additional drag, it was a last chance tactic because if the fish got to the lily pads it would surly break the line. It worked and the bass turned toward the boat. When I dipped the fish into the boat we were both dumb founded it was a hybrid stripped bass, a very large one 12 pounds 3 ounces and 31 inches long. The excitement of this catch left us both shaking as we looked at each other we both knew we had to go show the family. Every one was excited, especially Ethan and Haley and we all knew that this one had to go on the wall.
Today I am looking at my son’s name in the Indiana Fishing Regulation Guide as his fish won the fish of the year for Hybrid Stripped Bass and made another special memory for us all. What a special reward, I could not be more proud as a father and as an angler.
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