Fish Tales from Tucker Lake

The van had barely stopped before the boys grabbed their gear and scrambled out. Landon tied on a jig with a black plastic worm. Steve chose a crankbait. Jared used a huge silver flatfish lure with a treble hook. Sidney tied a metal leader onto his line so the jackfish’s teeth couldn’t cut it. Then he attached a Five of Diamonds lure to the leader. The lure was yellow with five red diamonds painted onto it. His dad had removed the treble hook and replaced it with a single, barbless hook. “It only takes one hook to catch a fish,” he always said. And Sidney knew they were easier on the fish when they released them. A few minutes later, they were all casting and reeling and hoping for a strike.
Jared caught the first fish. It measured 45 centimetres—not very big for a jackfish—but the only fish so far. Landon had a fish on, but it bit his line and got away. At the end of one and a half hours, everyone but Sidney had caught fish. Steve had the biggest one so far at 60 centimetres. Unless his luck changed soon, Sidney was going to be doing whatever Steve told him to for a whole week.
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Baldwin zigged and zagged to avoid the jackfish’s sharp-toothed mouth. He was getting tired. He swam out of the weedbed and spotted the jar he had rested in the day he got yanked. He swam inside it and hoped he would be safe. The jackfish was too big to get at Baldwin while he was inside the jar. But instead of giving up and leaving, the jackfish waited for him to come out.
“You can’t stay in there forever,” he said. Baldwin knew he was right. He let out a big sigh that formed a bubble and it popped when it hit the jackfish on the nose. The look of surprise on the big fish’s face made Baldwin laugh. This produced more bubbles, so the jackfish backed off, but he still hung around. They both turned to look when they felt a vibration in the water. They heard a noise, then saw what looked like another fish go whizzing by them. It was yellow with red markings. The jackfish chased it, caught it, and then started turning and twisting and thrashing around. It had been yanked! Baldwin left the jar and swam as fast as he could back to his school.