0606161624b-BFOTD!!! and Personal Best B.Gill

Spent a nice late morning with my g’son Brenden and his new rod and reel… searching for some shoreline panfish by the bridge… We came up empty handed with t’storms rumbling in the back ground and had to scurry home. Watching the weather on Accuweather I timed a period between t’storms and launched my kayak hurriedly into the shallow flats. In all the hurriedness I forgot my tackle boxes and tools! A phone call home for aid came up empty handed for awhile.

I still had 3 fully rigged rods … 1 slip float and two jig rods. I headed to my first waypoint and set a spring cricket towards the shoreline with a fine cast with the wind. A few twitches later I set the hooks into a bite. At first indication seemed like a fine LMB but the circling and vibrating head shakes signaled a B.Gill and a fine one at that. I saw a flash in the water a few feet from the boat that signaled this was a fish that needed to be netted! A few seconds later I brought the Bull into the kayak… shaking… thinking to myself this fish had to be all of ten inches.

The jig was completely engulfed… with no tools or hemostats I felt helpless. A few prods with my pinkie finger dislodged the barbless hook. After a few pictures and reviving the fish lowered into the net suspended in the water I had a decision to make… there was a chance it may be over the 10” mark… it was close and there was a distinct possibility it may be protecting a nest. Keep the fish floating in the net to officially measure once I had the scale or release the genetically fine specimen to protect its nest and finish passing on those genes?

I cut two segments of electrical tape that I found in my kayak crate and laid the fish out on the kayak and marked the ends with the tape and quickly released the fish. I had no idea at what stage the fish was in the spawning cycle. Instinctively I decided to preserve the fine genetics of this specimen… after all it very well may be my personal best!.

My son later met me at the launch and delivered the tackle boxes and fishing tools. I continued fishing and tagging three more fish between 9 and 10 “! Then a bragger sized crappie of 12.6”. Not a significant quantity of fish caught between t’storms but quality was there.

The distance between tapes was 10.3”… my Personal Best! … after a short pause I thought giving up that Certificate was a small price to pay for the Genetic position that fish could play in Wixom Lake. A good day of fishing!

A good day of fishing!