Viva La Espana!

Congratulations to Spain on a brilliantly played World Cup Final Championship game. Iniesta scored on an overtime strike giving Spain their first ever golden trophy. Sadly, soccer now slips back into obscurity on the North American continent for another three and a half years. One of the nice things about soccer is that a regulation game fits neatly into a two hour commercial free time slot. Add in a a half hour pre-game show and your still shorter than your average baseball. Soccer is supposed to be the sport of global appeal but a quick scan of the results shows that 13 of 32 finalists, 6 of 16 to make the knockout stage and both of the teams in the finals call Europe home. South America runs a respectable second but the rest of the world is "futbal" wasteland.

Segueing to other popular European sports which I enjoy but know nothing about, the Tour de France is also underway. I can DVR this daily and condense a somewhat tedious three and a half telecast into an hour or so highlight show. I watch a good chunk of the pre-game so the stage is nicely set, then I fast forward to the mountainous parts (slower cycling but higher drama and better scenery), then I fast forward to the last 10k or so to see who wins the stage and what that does to the overall standings. No one could accuse me of not being much of a purist but I do have a day job you know.

In completely unrelated news, I still eagerly await the mythical pile of government money. Conveniently, I work at the bank so if it was a scam I would literally be the first to know, or at least the second...my wife is very sharp. At this point it has been more than a week and most crooks aren't that patient, and you will recall I did independently verify the existence of the program. We will probably spend the bulk of the funds sprucing up the bathroom, but Renee did agree to let me buy a small one-person kayak and related accessories...which brings me to fishing.

Today I caught my first honest-to-goodness respectable fish. Not just a fish which I can be proud of, at this point I am still pleased with any fish, but a fish with which anyone could be pleased. Today I caught a modest 14" lake trout and was going to have to be content with that, but as my time was winding down a saw a mammoth smallmouth hanging in the reeds about forty yards from the trestle I was fishing (near the Messer Street bridge for locals). So I figured what the hell he was either going to bite or not and I casted my new neon yellow worms past his head and reeled them into the strike zone. He was interested and followed it a little but I could tell after three or four casts that he wouldn't bite. So I quickly switched to my other new lure a 4" Wild Eyed Minnow and I continued casting about ten to twenty feet past the bass so I wouldn't spook him. Each time I let it settle for just a few seconds and then I would reel frantically hoping for a reaction strike and also that the large exposed hook wouldn't get caught in the reeds. He was definitely interested in who was swimming through his water and on about the third cast he bit hard and plunged a little. This was the first serious test of the new 20 lb test line that I have been using as the smallie dragged my line deep and through the reeds and then he lashed back and forth a bit. after a minute or so the bass conceded defeat and I had to reel him the 20 or so feet up to the train trestle (again another good test of the line). Easily the biggest fish I have ever caught, he was a solid 17" and using a weight estimator on the Bass Resource website and my own instinct I would say he was very close to 3 lbs (2.8 says the estimator). All in all a very good day, for me and the bass which I unhooked and let go.