Pond Scum Of The Month, February 2011

Pond Scum Of The Month is a new monthly feature here at MVF. Bass fishing is, for the most part, filled with good people who know “the code” and follow the rules. There are some however, who don’t. We will be looking at those folks in this monthly feature.

To kick it off, I would like to introduce you to “lineasillious leaveameba”, or LL for short. I don’t know any angler who has walked the shore of a lake and not had a run in with LL.

Old lineasillious is easily recognizable from the usual bass hounds on the water by his equipment—which is never appropriate for the situation—as well as his clothing, that by all appearances, was last washed during the Clinton administration.

LL is completely ignorant, or just doesn’t care, about the body of water he’s visiting. All he is concerned about is attempting to catch something even though he has nary a clue as to how to accomplish this goal. Now just these facts alone wouldn’t be enough to give him the title of “Pond Scum of the Month”, no, LL is much more nefarious when it comes time to put a line in the water and try to coax that first bite out of a fish.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, “lineasillious leaveameba” comes equipped with gear usually purchased in the Toy Section of the local Wal-Mart, right around the same time as his last pile of laundry was washed. He doesn’t have any idea about the subtle nuances of line, including line size, and what would be appropriate for a given species of fish; what pound test would be suitable for the rod they are using and of course, probably the most important factor in line awareness, the age of what’s on the spool! This is the one that gave LL his name.

Due to the fact that LL has no idea how old his line is, when he does get a bite, he sets the hook just like one of the pro’s he has seen on TV. And of course, the result isn’t that hard to predict. The line snaps right at the end eyelet of his rod, the fish swims away or he never really had a bite to begin with.

He was in actuality just snagged on the bottom and when he moved his line, he mistook the snag for a bite. Now is where LL lays his claim to fame. He is so convinced that he had a bite, he leaves his line, complete with all the paraphernalia, in the water. He also figures that now the fish have moved and he is going to do the same. He reties and off he goes around the lake to look for another spot.

I have actually had conversations with lineasillious, and they always go something like this, ”Have you considered changing your line to something newer?”. Old LL doesn’t miss a beat when answering this question. He simply states, ”I got this line at a garage sale 15 years ago on a 3,000 yard spool and haven’t had to get new line yet!”. Keep in mind that LL is frugal for which I give him props but he really should consider changing his line at least as often as he brushes his teeth! I know all the discussions that I have had with LL are much harder when I am standing down-wind from him.

LL does this all day long, and sometimes, all day and all night! The result is the same at almost every spot around the lake he stopped. Any little jump in the line, he utilizes an epic hookset, snaps the line, leaves it in the water and off to the next spot. Unfortunately for the rest of us, “lineasillious leaveameba” does as often as not, travel in packs, which does nothing but compound the problem.

The end result of LL and his crew having a day at the lake is that there are long lines everywhere for the rest of us to find. We take a cast and get tangled up in LL’s old, crusty line, have to reel it in, cut it off of our hooks and then hand-line the rest of it in just to throw it away. I know that there have been days when I did this at least a half a dozen times all thanks to LL, and honestly, I have never found anything on the end of LL’s line that compensated me for my trouble. So, for our first ever “Pond Scum of the Month,” lineasillious leaveameba has my vote.

The moral of the story is simple—if your line breaks off, do your best to clean it up. Everyone will thank you for it.

See ya on the water…