The One That Wasn't Photographed

[Walt Foreman]

So I was just out at a four-acre lake I manage, and the owner came up to me and said, "You're gonna kill me..."  So I asked him why, and he asked me what the record bluegill was.  I told him the state record is three pounds for Tennessee.  He showed me his hand and explained that from the tip of his middle finger to his thumb outstretched is 9.5 inches - he said the bluegill he caught a week ago on a white bucktail spinner he was throwing for bass, was ten inches wide - said he couldn't touch its back and stomach with his outsretched hand.  He said it was "at least" fourteen inches long, and "very thick and fat."  He said he didn't have a camera with him, and the neighbor's dog (which is possibly the single stupidest canine on the planet) was trying to eat the fish and he was afraid if he went looking for a camera the dog would eat the fish...So he let it go.

 

I asked him if he had a cell phone and he said he did; I asked if I could look at it, and the phone had a camera on it.  He had not known his phone had a camera on it.  I showed him how to use the camera phone...

 

Needless to say, I'm a little sick at the moment...

[Curtis Wayne]

Greg i dont know about the floatable part but my phone is dust dirt and shock resistant.  They do not say it is water proof but water resistant.  I have an uncle who droped his in a glass of iced tea (fell out of his shirt pocked bet he cant do it again) and was submerged and the phone still worked fine.  I am a carpenter and it is tough enough to take the abuse at work and I have no complaints with it.  Bonus it takes pretty good pics and has a flash with it.  No if I could just figure out how to post the pics on here from my phone.....

[LON, veteran talk show host]

YEP. A photo woulda been nice. I have my camera phone, but still forget to take

pictures often. I caught 23 nice size bream the other day, no photos; but I wasn't

on HERE THEN... now that I am, I'll give some pics!

[Walt Foreman]

It's a four-acre pond, with a couple holes over thirty feet deep, and I try to keep a good plankton bloom from March through September which limits the visibility down into the water, so there's a lot still that I don't know about the fish in that pond. 

 

I probably do know some of the better spots on the pond to fish.  I just wish I'd been the one to hook that giant - or at least been there to photograph and measure it, and get it to a certified scale somewhere...

[LON, veteran talk show host]

WOW! That is just tremendous. I'll tell you Walt... just being able to talk about fishing

and having a good time fishing is really where it is. So, you had to 'feed' the fish, care

for the health, structuring, everything huh? Awesome. Seems that you'd get to KNOW

the fish pretty well then, know their habits, and so on?

[Walt Foreman]

I'm still bummed about it, Lon.  I managed this particular pond for ten years from 1987-1997, then moved to California for ten years.  I moved back to TN four years ago, and began managing this pond again two years ago...So I've put a lot of time and hard work into that pond.  I'm hoping the fish is still alive and thriving, since the pond owner released it, and that perhaps it will be caught again at some point...

[LON, veteran talk show host]

that's sad. 14 inches!!

[Walt Foreman]

Trust me, if I had caught the fish, not only would it have been photographed, it would have been weighed on a certified scale in front of witnesses...For that matter, if I had been there when the pond owner caught it, all of the above would still apply...Oh well. 

[Greg McWilliams]

Camera, never leave home without it!!!!! My best catches and catch was when I left home without it!!!! I never carry a cell phone but that would be a good reson to start. Do they make them water proof and floatable??????