8-16 SS Jumping Bass

  A jumping bass.

 Years ago, my friend Pete Edmunds was living in Kansas when he met someone who liked fishing as much as he did. He came to Pete with an idea. Here is Pete: “lots of bass and bluegill. And he said oh I know  all these farmers and all these little ponds to go to. He said would you like to go and I said yes but can I fly fish? He said yes I have a spinning outfit but you can do that. So the very 1st pond we come to we start talking very quietly because he gives me... these are largemouth bass and they can feel the vibrations  so we wanted be quiet and when we get there I’ll show you where to stand... In the meantime I’ve got a fly rod and I don’t even remember what the fly was but it was the right colors it had some brown and black and cream, kind of a bent wing deal with  a hackle on it. He’s kind of gesturing at me with his hands whispering just the other side of that dead tree so I whisper back yeah okay. I stopped and I look back at him and he gives me the high sign like yes that’s a good spot. The whole time this fly I have is dangling over the water about a foot and a half. As I’m looking at him to see if this is where he wants me, a bass jumps out of the water and takes the fly. Scared the living daylights out of me. My line heads right out into the pond, this reel is singing, and this guy is screaming you got him, you got them. I finally got the fish up and that was the 1st largemouth bass of any size, it was a good-sized fish, 16 of 17 inches long.