Now Where is That Cat?

PETA has provided me the perfect opportunity to show off this 4-pound large mouth bass with their "get tough on animal killers" anti-fishing campaign.

Just look at that baby.

We were doing some early morning casting at Spirit Lake near Grantsburg Wisc., not being too picky. The bait was likely one of the roughly dozen spinner baits we went through that week. The lake had been offering a lot of action from smaller northerns with the occasional large-mouth out of the weedline. This fish was the biggest bass caught during a week of large fish.

It marks the first fishing trip in 17 years of marriage in which I caught the largest fish. Needless to say, that fact alone dictates that every opportunity be taken to display it.

PETA offers this stellar caption:

"Your Daddy Kills Animals"

Well actually, I put it back in the lake like a good conservationist. Still, I think PETA's sentiment captures the spirit of the thing, and their hysterical fear-mongering can certainly be understood in context.

In my estimation, about 90 percent of the kids PETA reaches will toss their over-the-top drivel off the boat the first time they hook into a fish like this. The exhiliration as it leaves the confines of the water to soar majestically through the air, only to dive and run, is pure joy.

PETA's depiction of fishermen as drooling, psychotic, animal murderers has created a yearning in me to once again dangle a juicy leech or sucker minnow in front of an unsuspecting and perfectly innocent non-Bush supporting trophy fish.

I hereby declare than, that this is the year I take up ice-fishing.

After all, I have only so much time on this planet and there are only so many chances to drive PETA followers insane with rage. Hell, I might even keep a few fish from now on.