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Those valuable shiny pennies
In life and in fishing, it often is the little things that make us happy.
A smile, a favor or a person simply doing something he or she promised can make our day. A shiny penny, an organized cupboard or the TV remote right where it’s supposed to be – any of those might make a tough day better.
So it is in fishing. We go to the lake with a grand plan, strategically set to take advantage of conditions, our experience and the fishes’ moods. We push off from the dock in a boat worth more than some nations’ gross national products with enough tackle to knock 5 mph off the outboard’s top speed.
We’re so ready out there, yet it’s often a little thing that happens to make a tough day better.
All who fish know bad days will occur. I had my fair share of rough luck and tough fishing in 2015, but I’m fortunate that each also came with a better-than-expected result. When all seemed lost, a little thing happened to make the trouble seem trivial.
Lost fish, broken gear, fried electronics, dumped tackle and even an injury or two. It all happened to me last season. Soon after each mishap, however, I found a shiny penny.
For example ...
The day my trolling motor’s circuitry burned led to a “little thing” moment in sportsmanship. The cooked unit was useless for the next day of fishing and a bass angler working shallow cover without a trolling motor is like a chef without knives and fire.
To the rescue, however, came fellow competitor Tom Rolland. We were fishing the same tournament and I was sitting in second place after day one. Rolland spoke up when he learned of my dilemma and offered me a ride the next day.
I accepted. He finished first and I nailed down second, grateful for the shiny penny he invested on my behalf.
Another little thing happened during a midsummer morning on Lake Milton. A fish that flopped on the surface and threw the treble hooks that had it pinned to my line was a pivotal event in my crankbait fishing last year.
The beautiful 3-pound smallmouth bass that escaped that day on Lake Milton prompted me to shed my opinion that the hooks I’d been using were good enough. After the fish escaped, I swapped out the hooks for short-shank, extra-strong Mustad trebles and my lost-fish ratio improved considerably.
So guess the hooks on my plugs today. Talk about your shiny penny!
On a blustery day in June, I broke a nice rod while trying to undo a snag. Disgusted, I put the two pieces in the under-deck rod locker and fished the balance of the day with my other stuff.
Back home, I pulled the broken stick from the boat and discovered a small crack in one of the line guides. It surely would have nicked my line, so I actually was glad I put it out of service before it caused a breakoff on a future bass.
Last winter I underwent surgery to repair my injured thumb-to-wrist joint. Rehab stretched into early spring and I still was fighting pain and stiffness when I went fishing for the first time after the surgeon did his thing.
I must confess my hooksets were a bit timid that day. My body instinctively pulled easier to avoid the jarring shock that can be transmitted up 20-pound-test fluorocarbon, through a heavy-action flipping stick to my hands.
But I didn’t lose a fish that day. I had six bites and put six bass in the boat. That “little thing” – easing back on the hookset – became my standard operating procedure.
It’s the little things – the shiny pennies – that are there for us just when we need them most.