Fishing with a neighbor rewarding

I had never lived within the perimeters of the city limits until marrying my beautiful wife nearly four years ago. Although a small price to pay for spending the remainder of my life with the love of my life, a learning curve lurked ahead.

I was not accustomed to living in a subdivision. Peering out and seeing another house within feet of our window was a shock that eventually subsided. And not knowing the names and history of my neighbors was foreign to me, as I had grown up and lived in the same neck of the woods for most of my life.

With time, I became acquainted with most of my neighbors, actually learning that a family friend lived a few houses up the road. I eventually realized that although not knowing those around me well, we had common denominators.

I first found comfort in knowing the guy residing across the road was an avid angler. Several guys who shared my passion for fishing lived within hollering distance. Living within the perimeters of the city limits became much more bearable.

Of course, this camaraderie has proved a great means of getting better acquainted with my neighbors. It seems that our conversations always gravitate toward fishing when we cross paths. One of my neighbors decided to load up and try our hand at catching a few largemouth bass.

Arriving at the ramp shortly after daybreak, we loaded our gear into the boat and embarked upon a short drive to a section of water that had proven an early spring hot spot.

Coasting to a stop at the mouth of a narrow pocket, we quickly detected the first bite of the morning. Already confident in these waters, I still felt a sense of relief upon boating a keeper. And with a little luck, we would coax fish into biting throughout the remainder of the day.

Sure enough, several more bass found the Yum-Dinger too much to resist. And practically every fish we caught for the first couple of hours exceeded the length limit. With an impressive mess of fish swimming in the livewell, we anticipated having our limits before noon.

But a wind eventually started blowing from the east, bringing with it a noticeable change. The smaller fish were still eager to attack the soft plastics. But the feeding habits of the larger ones, however, changed drastically.

Floating the worms over and within inches of fallen trees and other cover, it seemed that every cast went in vain. We were fishing on waters comparable to those we had found fish earlier in the day. We were attacking them from every angle, but to no avail.

As the afternoon progressed, the fishing grew even less productive. The small bass had even become stricken with a severe case of lockjaw. And as an eastward wind increased, I suspected we had already experienced the most productive time of the day.

After Coy eventually coaxed one more keeper into biting, we both agreed it was time to call it a day. While loading the boat I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed about how the fish had quit biting.

But my mindset changed when I recalled the success we had experienced early was simply icing on the cake, with sharing my passion for fishing and building a friendship with a neighbor the recipe for a great time.