When Micropterus salmoides spawns, the female lays the eggs in a “nest,” and wanders off to let the males fertilize, guard, protect, hatch and look after them young ones. Or something akin to that, according to the lore.
There’s a nest, a circle swept clean by nesting black bass, right in front of the dock. I spied it Wednesday morning. Hot damn – angry, adolescent males!
I tapped on the keyboard and then wandered off to fish. I tossed spoons, shiners, curly-tailed wiggly things, and got nothing. Had a reading to do so I saddled up to the phone and keyboard while I spun through a chart & tape.
Wandered back to the water’s edge. I put a crawdad critter on the end of a weighted hook, makes the little guy stand up and wiggly his claws in a menacing fashion. The smaller of the two bucks took the bait, not because it was tempting but because the lure was threatening.
He managed to spit the hook out before I got him up for a picture. We were wrestling at the river’s edge, me against a feller who wasn’t much bigger than bait fish. Angry male.
I landed that crawdad there again, but he refused it several more times, although he did bump it once or twice.
Another readings, another tape, more tapping on the keyboard, and then I figured I’d try a worm. I dug through the plastics and used a Texas-rigged watermelon-colored worm. This time, it was the bigger of the two guys, and this time, he shook the hook, too. At least he was decent-sized, unlike his younger brethren. That big mouth looked like he could swallow a hard drive.
Nothing worked after that. What’s worse? While I was working that one nest, a whole section, not quite a school, just a handful of adolescent bass cruised right in front of me. A bird flew over and its shadow scattered them.
If Thursday doesn’t bring any more luck, I might just jump in the river and wrestle one of those guys up for a picture.
Successes, failures, and subscriptions
Review, revise, and look at what’s happening, one year later.
Expectations? Failed. Failed miserably. That’s also the nature of unrealistic expectations.
I had high hopes that the, literally, tens of thousands of people who access this site would actually consider signing up and paying a mere pittance of a fee, thereby validating the amount of effort that goes into the project.
By my internal standards, that arbitrary goal that was, at best, an estimate? I’ve failed. From a strict balance sheet point-of-view? This is a success. Not destined to put my name at the top of the Fortune 500 list, but at least, as a business model, it’s proof-of-concept success.
The problem is inherent generosity. When I shopped this idea, over a year ago, prices ranged from $4.95 to $24.95 per month. I was undercutting the competition with a lower price. I was also hoping to spread the cost out among as many people as possible. High hopes in humanity. My bad.
Couple of options. I could jack the prices up. I could raise the ante and buy-in to a more realistic price. I could scrap the whole endeavor, and pursue a more traditional route, and just skip posting scopes on the web.
Or, I could do nothing. Just let that bet ride a little longer.
