“Hey, look at all these ponds… I bet there are a lot of fish in them!” As if we were planning a siege of sorts, Hawgdaddy and I huddled in front of Google maps, looking at the potential fishing areas near our workplace. Either we got tired of hearing “We never get to fish anymore”, or the warmer weather has us in some kind of trance. Regardless, our latest idea is to take a few days out of our work week and go fishing during lunch. Hence, we have come up with an idea for our site called “The Lunchtime Angler.” In this series we will be telling of the many adventures, probably mostly mishaps, during our short lunchtime fishing excursions.
What is a Lunchtime Angler? Don’t bother looking in the dictionary because you won’t find it. I’d like to say that I coined the term, but I’m sure that would be a lie. You probably won’t even find the idea on many of the popular fly fishing blogs as many of them fish for a living. Those who actually work for a living -and I won’t even pretend I work hard -may be more understanding of the term if they continually find themselves pressed for fishing time. I’ve found the best medicine for my fishing itch involves spending my lunch at the river. Now, for many of you that may be an impossibility due to your location, but it’s worked out pretty good for Hawgdaddy and I.
We noticed that there was a recreation center nearby, and it is suggested that you go there and talk to “the fishing guru” about the rules and regulations of all these little ponds. As giddy as a young child opening presents on Christmas morning, we went to harass this poor unfortunate soul one day at lunch. Of course we’d already scouted out a few places on the map, but we weren’t quite sure of the regulations and definitely didn’t want to break any rules. Upon asking the guy where the best fishing was – already thinking we knew – we weren’t quite ready for the answer he gave us. “There really isn’t much fishing around here”, he said. Then he proceeded to explain that the ponds we had been checking out were hardly ever open. Of course, there was one pond not too far away, but there was a catch. I’m sure there was a release form you would have to sign as it had an uncontrollable cottonmouth population, mostly likely a few gators, and required a jon boat to be able to fish it. For our luck and past experiences, we thought this might be a little too adventurous for a lunchtime escapade. The only real option seemed to be the Tennessee River which was only about a 4 mile drive. Continue reading The Lunchtime Angler
