Well I’ll be…huh…yep, excited here.
My Golf Pro Cousin was over for a family gathering and I showed him a couple of my old (I guess they are really old and rare) golf clubs. The short version is that they will end up in a museum. Honorable mention is how excited he got in “the find of a lifetime.” Less than honorable mention is all I can think about is replacing my almost as old fishing rod.
Over the weekend a fishing buddy and I visited one of our lakes way back in the woods and had a rare find to the tune of 75+ bass fighting for whatever we threw in the water. I am very sure that we hit a stretch of weed edge drifting where a fish per cast was 100% for half an hour minus the pike bite offs. 10″ Bluegill were attacking our jigs as well. Chris lost the skin on his thumb landing them the classic way (I had heavier line and the old stout rod so it was heave and hoist). Being it was raining off and on and we were too busy to take pictures anyway, it’s a story without pictures or proof (except for some guys Chris took out the next day).
Guess which rare find excites me the most? Passions are not to be trifled with. I have been told that I have had a one track mind labeled “Fishing” since I could walk. Maybe that’s why I’m willing to take canoe trips into the BWCA Wilderness 47 portages and bull through the brush to hidden lakes that might have fish in them.
To date I have had some extremely rare finds: Two pound plus yellow perch in a lake surrounded by rock walls and a swamp with a one mile bushwhack, brook trout in a small Crystal clear lake up to 20,” 8-12 pound pike in a swamp type lake guarded by angry moose, rainbow trout up to seven pounds in a small clear lake surrounded by cedars hanging over the waters edges, and a small mysterious waterway where I broke my line on all three fish trying to stop them from crossing into Canada a mile away. Do I dare mention that we have hooked at least three fish like my 46″ pike in a lake most people just pass through without a cast?
Sometimes a rare find just happens (like my garage sale golf clubs) but I think most are intentional or at least set-up to happen. I work (maybe “play” is a better word) hard at fishing. I have many rare finds. We worked hard at parenting (with great and rare returns)
. July 10th 37 years ago I had proposed and we have been committed to each other since…That’s rare. Our relationship with God runs deeper than being religious and that seems to be oddly rare.
Friends come and go and we have not taken the time to have many deep friendships; our loss and sadly not rare. I would trade my golf clubs for being able to be a good friend to more people, but not my fishing rod. I don’t sign off like those fishing shows; “See you on the water.”
Sorry, I’m in search of another rare find. I’ll probably share it with the guys from Fish-camp and that’s about it. I’ll be on a lake less fished probably with my old rod. 
garyfultz 