Hazen Culley:  

FISHING AT IT'S WORST OR BEST BUT STILL A BLAST Yesterday was a most enjoyable day fishing or perhaps the worst, depending on your viewpoint. I decided about 2:PM to head out on the portage canal and see if I could knock down a few more smallmouth bass. It was comfortable in the low 70's, slightly overcast but a strong wind out of the SE. After fishing for about an hour I got on the leeside of a point out of the worse wind. Using a spinning rod with a top water Rapala I was casting towards the shore and slow retrieving it back to the boat. I was near a dock that had a picnic tent with a nylon top. When I casted along the side of the dock to entice Mr. Bass out from under the wind caught the lure and blew it up on top of the canopy and it hung there. I maneuvered the boat to the dock and with one foot on the dock the other on the boat I reached up to retrieve the lure only to have a barb of the treble hook securely snag my left ring finger. The top was about 6' feet high so I could not see the lure. I tried to unhooked my finger only to find the more I tried the worse it got. The wind was catching the boat trying to blow it back to open water. Alas,all I could figure to do was bite down hard and yank my hand away from the lure. The finger came loose leave what felt like a pound of flesh still hung on the hook. Needless to say it hurt like a SOB. The drugs I am on must have a blood thinner effect and the finger tip was bleeding like a stuck pig. Blood was dripping down my hand on to the deck, on my pants, and made the rod handle slippery. But being the Sportsman I am I continued my quest of Mr. Smallmouth. As 7:30 PM was approaching I motored back to a bank which I had previously had a good day, and having snared only one nice sized bass in the process. I hung another larger smallmouth giving me two for the day. Any normal person would say hey, good day and head for the landing. But NO, the best is yet to come. The wind had picked up more and the temperature had dropped to the low 60s as the sun was starting to drop farther in the sky. It doesn't get dark here in the UP (Upper Penn. Michigan) until 10:30 PM...Expand for more