Last week a warm, humid evening was adjusted to comfortable by float tubing a large pond renowned for producing big bluegills. Several 7-inch bluegills and an undersized crappie were caught and released before a yellow sponge spider landed in the shade of a backside willow. A short strip was greeted by an explosive strike and a deeply bent 4-wt. rod. When the fish’s initial lunge for shoreline branches was rebuffed it dove for the pond’s deepest water and towed the tube along a circular rod-throbbing path. Finally, the fight descended into the customary tightly wound circles before being lifted onto the apron of the float tube where it was measured at 9-3/4 inches. The release was more difficult than usual because I could not get my hand around it. It was a “two-handed” bluegill! Many other fish were caught and released including a 16-inch largemouth bass but the memory of that nearly 10-inch bluegill remains.
The Two-Hander
