Yep. That’s the one….

Dave DeRousse knew immediately what I was going to say when he landed the chunky pound and a half largemouth bass on a recent trip down below Terral Island at D’Arbonne.

“Don’t even say it,” he said. “I know what you are thinking, so don’t even say it.”

“Yep, that’s the one,” I told him.  Dave and I have been fishing together since he was an old man Graduate Assistant basketball coach at ULM (NLU then) and I was a much younger underclassman. We’ve fished together often over the years and always have fun. I even sold him one of my first boats for $80. It was a 12-foot aluminum with two plastic swivel seats, a battery for a trolling motor, a paddle and two floating boat cushions. Sure, the old boat leaked a little and the battery was dead (there wasn’t a trolling motor anyway), but hey, the paddle had hardly ever been used.

But back to the story. There was Dave holding up this bass. Had he caught it at the right time, it could have won us $1,000. Instead, we got a trophy and a bag of baits that we used about as much as that trolling motor battery as tournament runnerup.  You see, we had been in a doubles bass tournament where each team could weigh in 10 fish. We weighed in nine. Weighed around 18 pounds, as I recall. All caught by me. We finished second by six ounces.  Just one little bass contributed by Big Dave, one little 12-inch largemouth, and we would have won. He never even got a bite, unless you count the bites on those big fried chicken breasts from the Sterlington Quick Mart.

It was 30ish years ago, but every time Dave catches his first fish of the day, that story comes back. By the way, Dave has NEVER, ever fished in another bass tournament, even if I volunteer to pay the entry fee. He bristles at the very idea and starts talking of bream fishing from the bank…

But he still loves to fish, still puts up with me and still somehow always manages to take the filets home. I guess I’ll get to keep some once he gets his $80 worth….