The Tug is the Drug

Its always fun when you hook up with a fish. It doesn't matter if its sight fishing to a cruising bonefish across a white sand flat. Watching a largemouth bass explode on a deer hair bug that just splatted down next to some lilly pads. Drifting across underwater structure with sinking lines probing for schools of striper on an underwater hump. Or watching the slightest tick of your indicator as a trout takes your #20 red midge as it is dead drifted down the run. But what about the times when you set the hook on a snag, and you say to yourself there goes another fly, but experience tells you there is something different. Your not really sure what it is but you can feel the line slowly moving. That's when you realize this isn't a snag. It feels like an eternity but has only been seconds when you start feeling the head shakes of the fish as it slowly starts to swim off. He isn't spooked yet because he can't believe the meal he just picked up was a mistake he has avoided for so long. He's to smart for this, he has evaded anglers for to many years so he continues to shake his head as he starts to pick up speed. That's when you both know whats is going on. He realizes his mistake and you realize you have just hooked into "the fish of the river." These are the fish that make your hands tremble, your knees shake and you sick to your stomach if you lose them. They keep you up at night dreaming of them, spending hours preparing for them and keep you coming back for more time and time again. You cant wait to keep searching for that fish that makes you shake again.