It was truly awesome to get outside and on the Lake today at Umstead Park in Raleigh, NC. I made it a quick trip with the goal of catching a nice sized Bass. Mission was accomplished.

I will say this episode is an example of how important is is to be prepared when things go unexpectedly wrong. Unless I am fishing for food (only a few times in my life),  I always catch and release (A River Monster Jeremy Wade lesson).

However, sometimes when fishing the hook gets swallowed a bit by the fish into the deeper regions of their mouth.

Thats what happened in today's episode, but thankfully I was prepared to save the fish. I used my 12 inch long hook remover (looks like forceps from a doctor's office). Using the hook remover,  I was able to safely take the barbed hook out of the Bass's deep mouth area and put Her/Him/It back into the Lake where they belong.

The Bass was about 17 inches long and 3.5 lbs,  and I hope he grows to 28 inches 15 lbs when I catch him in 10 years from now.

Bass can live up to 25+ years. They are very cool fish. Why I will save a Bass every time I catch one?

I owe it to owning a 10 gallon aquarium when I was in my youth, as well as growing up in Virginia Beach. My Dads (I had two as my Mom remarried) both taught me this at a young age -  never kill a fish unless we need it for food. 

Made it a quick win today on Mother's day and finally caught that first Bass of the year while recording. Last week Dwayne and I received an assist by a large raptor who dropped the bass. I didn't get a chance to take a picture as I had to take my time removing the hook so as not to hurt his gills or stomach. Felt great to catch a bass on Happy Mother Nature day.

Buddies John and Dwayne get together for the first time in about 1. 5 years.

We are here for fishing and talking and decompressing, but of course we are going to talk some tech.

We do catch a beautiful Bass together with 100% teamwork (including ourselves and either an Eagle, Hawk, Osprey, or Blue Heron).

We sing a little Charlies Daniel's Band "Devil Went Down to Georgia" just as two southern folks remembering a legendary fittle player and song.

Only unfortunate part of the trip was that we ran out of recording battery at the end, so our episode sputters out a little on a sad topic about a recent John Oliver episode -- time shares and the companies that helped people get rid of the time shares.

Most important about this May 6th Saturday was that we made time for each other, and we got out of the house and onto a lake in North Carolina to fish and talk together. Thank you Dwayne for an excellent experience last Saturday May 6, 2023.  Hope to do it again real soon buddy!