Forrest’s Last Fish-Netting Mistake

An outdoor scribblin’ compadre of mine, John Neporadny Jr., once (maybe more than once?) interviewed Forrest Wood about a couple different subjects. One story Forrest told was this one, one of my favorites:

A long time ago Nina and I were prefishing for a tournament on Lake Okeechobee, and we had an 8-pound bass in the livewell that we were going to get mounted. [Friends] came down the lake and stopped to visit with us for a while, so I stopped fishing, poured a cup of coffee and started shooting the bull with them.

Of course Nina doesn’t ever quit fishing. She was throwing a Johnsons Silver Minnow over the grass beds, and all of a sudden there was a big swirl in the water. She set the hook and fought the fish for a while.

When I first saw it, I thought she had snagged a carp or something, it was so big. But when she said to get the net I knew she was serious about getting the fish in. So I got the net and was standing there ready.

When we got the fish laid up close enough to where I could dip it, that fish was so long it reached across the net and wouldn’t fold up to go inside of it. So it flopped off and fell back into the water. I got the net out of the way real quick and she was trying to hold it.

In the process we managed to get the line to where she stepped on it and it got caught on the sole of her shoe. We got that loose and still had the fish. But then pretty soon, it ran around the motor, cut her line and got loose.

Oh, it was the most sickening feeling I ever had in my life. It was 15 pounds or so, just a monster fish. It bothered me.

It didn’t seem like it bothered Nina quite as much because she didn’t say much about it. In fact, she didn’t say anything for about three days.

And…

I believe it! Dang!

Good story. And for what it’s worth, even though “everyone knows” Nina was a powerful force in building Ranger and even in building bass fishing as we know it today, she seldom (ever?) gets the awards and accolades Forrest does. Guess she’s cool with that but I’d love to see her name right up there with Forrest (that’s a hint, Bassin Hall of Fame).