5:30 rolled around way too fast, and it was still dark outside when we got up and headed out the door to pick up Pudd. Auntie Sue-Sue (Pudd's wife) agreed to babysit Dudley for us, so we dropped him off and headed out for Laurel Hill Lake, a 325 acre lake about fifty miles from our house. We saw lots of deer and turkey as we drove along the Natchez Trace and it rained softly most of the way.
When we got to the lake, we were amazed at how big and beautiful it was. It reminded us of a spot we fished in Oregon, minus the pine trees and smell of juniper in the air. It was a gorgeous place. We stopped at the bait shack and picked up chicken livers, minnows and worms and headed off to find the perfect spot along the bank. Pudd caught the first fish on a bobber, a bright colored sunfish (or as we call them back home, bluegill) about the size of his hand.
Hubby set me up to fish for catfish and loaded my hook with a big glob of bloody chicken liver. Gross! I cast it out and plopped down in my chair to wait for the bite. Soon enough, my pole was bending and I was excitedly reeling in my first catfish! Oh boy! I squealed with delight and the noise echoed across the lake!
The weather was perfect for fishing. It was nice and cool as the clouds kept the sun at bay and we had a light drizzle every so often to keep the temperatures down. There was the perfect breeze and the lake was calm. There weren't many people there, which was surprising for a holiday weekend, but we did see a few boats around the edge of the lake and up near the dam. It was peaceful and quiet.
That is, until I hooked another monster! Pretty soon, my pole nearly jerked right out of my hands and I jumped up and gave it a good yank to set the hook. It was bent almost in half as I cranked the reel as best I could. I was screaming and yelling and Hubby was standing next to me while Pudd shouted out for me to slow down and hang on! I just knew I had a record-breaking fish on the end of that line and I was determined to pull it in.
I had the line a little closer to the bank when all of a sudden SNAP! went my line and ZING! it came flying back towards me and THWACK! there it came and CONKED! poor Hubby right in the eye with a loud THUD! He doubled over clutching his hand to his eye and I just knew I'd yanked his eyeball out with my hook! I think we all held our breath as we waited for Hubby to straighten back up and when he did, he had blood coming down the side of his face and I just knew that big old globby chicken liver had flown out of the water and hit him right in the eye!
I surveyed the damage, the monster fish long forgotten, and Hubby checked my line to see what in the world happened to my hook. The line had been snapped and the hook and bait were nowhere to be found. The blood coming down Hubby's face wasn't from the liver at all, but from him! The sinker on my line, which was about an inch long and made of solid lead, had popped him right in the eye on his brow bone and there was a big gash with blood oozing out. Poor sweetie! I felt awful!
In all the commotion with me and my monster fish (which was probably a turtle, we later agreed), poor Hubby had left his pole unattended and it was bending like crazy toward the water as he had a fish on the end of his pole too! I screamed and pointed toward his pole and Pudd ran over to set the hook for him and reel it in. Pretty soon that pole was bent nearly in half and THWOP! it broke right in two! Poor Hubby! This was not turning out to be a very good day. Pudd felt awful that he'd broken Sid's fishing pole, but all was well and Hubby was able to fix it right back up and continue fishing.
We laughed and told stories, had a nice lunch, mosied around the edge of the lake to try a few more spots and ended up catching a total of four fish altogether. It was a fun day, despite the mishaps and hopefully Hubby won't be deterred from taking me again real soon. Next time, we'll bring his helmet and a first-aid kit though, just in case!
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