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.