electric chicken

Friday, we were going to have dinner with Frank & Pat, our pals from Venice.  Before they got here, I went out to fish for a short while.  I hooked what I thought was the biggest red fish I'd caught this year.  The fish was stripping line like mad, and while I was raising my anchor with one hand, and starting  the video camera with the other hand and fighting the fish with my third hand, the fish got off.  I cried.

We had a very pleasant dinner and visit with Frank and Pat, and that helped me get over the disappointment of loosing a big red fish.  However, when I told my fishing friends down here about loosing the big red, they weren't very kind.  They said  "Must have been a sting ray."  "Maybe a manatee." And my favorite....."Probably a scuba diving interior decorator."
 
So, the next day, I went back to the same spot, and using the same bait, I caught this biggest red ever.

Saturday evening, we were invited over to Argay's house for dinner.  We had a great time with them, and dinner was superb.   On the way to their house, I stopped in Port Charlotte at Fishin Frank's to buy some soft plastic baits that Shelly had recommended.  I asked Frank if he sold Z-Man baits, and he looked me over, and said "Sure do--the best color is electric chicken."  And he put a package in my hand.  Electric chicken is bright pink and green.  It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen in the water.

I tied on an electric chicken this morning and went out to try my luck.  I kept looking at that thing, and thinking about that pink colored bait.  It really shows up in the water, and it practically glows when you cast it.  So I'm thinking..................did Frank peg me as a tourist, and get me to buy this pink bait so I won't catch any fish, and the locals can see me casting that pink thing from a long distance, and know I'm a rookie?

It didn't take long to set aside those concerns.  The biggest red ever from yesterday is no longer the biggest red ever.   And electric chicken is now my favorite color bait.