The big shiner hit the water with a smack and immediately began to tug frantically at the end of my line. I set the hook and leaned back on my rod in an attempt to keep the chunky bass out of the lily pads. The fish turned my direction and in a short time I had the 3 pound largemouth in my hand. I rigged another minnow with only a hook, leaned out around the bushes and cast to the transitional area where muddy water mingled with much clearer, green water. Immediately, the minnow began a frantic attempt to escape the predator which had zeroed in on it. A big boil appeared on the surface of the water as I watched my line race to the side. I let the fish take the slack out of my line before I set the hook and passed the spinning rod to Wanda.
Squeals of delight from the little blonde made me smile and say "Today it is better to catch 
fish than it is to just go fishing, huh?" Earlier in the day, Wanda told me that she wanted to go fishing at the farm where our family has a cabin, pavillion, dock and a good place to fish and swim. But, today was not the day to fish there. The river was two days past running red mud, the water was much higher than normal and the campground was muddy. "We can either go fishing, or we can go catch some fish," I said as I watched Wanda's twinkling blue eyes. "Can't we catch some fish at the farm today?" she replied while looking at me with a puzzled expression on her face. "No. We can either go to the farm, have a good time, cook hotdogs and play in the mud or we can catch a mess of fish for supper, which ever you want to do," I stated. "Oh, well of course I would rather catch a bunch of fish, Mr. Smarty, if you think we can," came her sarcastic reply. I love a challenge and I love it when a plan comes together!
As we hurriedly gathered our fishing gear, I explained why today was the day to catch fish only in certain areas, but those areas would be stacked with fish. Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain had caused flooding everywhere in our area. The rivers had been out of their banks, looking like running clay mud, the lakes were full to capacity, the creeks had spread out across the low areas, looking like rivers themselves. Everything was full of water, but not all the water was the same color. By now, the creeks had cleared somewhat, but were still above normal, some of them being overflow creeks from the lakes. The emerald green water of the creeks that run into the river merged with the still muddy water of the rivers, causing a transition area between the two drastically different water conditions and one of these places was where we were headed today.
Because of the shrubbery near the mouth of the creek, there was only room for one angler at a time to cast, so I lip hooked a minnow on a big hook, leaned as far out as I could around the brush, and cast the unweighted minnow towards the area where the river and creek merged. The response was immediate and in mere seconds I had a hookup with a river bass intent on ripping the rod out of my hand. I landed that fish, rigged another rod identical to mine, gave the minnow a sling and handed the rod to Wanda. As I was rebaiting my rod, I heard Wanda shout and turned to see that she had tied into a hefty fish. After wearing the fish down, she walked down the bank and led the bass into the shallow water and landed it. I cast towards the transition area of water, set the hook and handed the rod to Wanda while I strung her bass and re-baited. By the time I had done this, Wanda was standing by my side with a fish on 6 feet of line. I handed her the freshly baited rod, removed her bass and put it on the rapidly growing stringer of chunky bass. This frenzy of bass catchng action went on until we ran out of minnows. We did not catch a fish on every cast, but we had an opportunity for a hookup on every cast, sometimes the fish would get away with our bait and one very big largemouth simply broke my line when I tried to keep him out of the lily pads.
I am totally convinced that timing is everything when hunting and fishing, as far as catching fish and seeing game. When the conditions are right, it is time to be in the right place. Knowing when the time is right and where the right places are is a major part of being a successful fisherman or hunter. Legendary bowhunter Myles Keller put it like this: your brain is the most effective tool that you have in pursuit of game. Learn when and where to read the signs and you will be a step ahead of the game.
