So the other day I found myself with customers Doug n' Deb from Ft. Worth on a cold blustery NE wind day...ya know, the day of the cold front last week. Low hanging clouds, misty and the fish bit like crazy.

Was on a good top-water bite when a monster 12lb striper was boated and I reached behind him to unhook the fish. Everything went well until the fish thrashed and one set of trebles ended up burying up in my hand. With 2 other fish on and chaos among us I did everything I could not to scream, lol

Doug and I worked together to start getting the hook out. WE had to go ahead and push the hook thru the hand to get it to a place to cut the barb. I elected to do that instead of using the fishing string trick...fish were schooling and we just have time for any of that professional stuff.

Finally, we got the hook out and went onto fishing. Not sure how many hybrid we caught on top...but it was ALOT. Almost every cast for over an hour.

Well, thats not the point of this story...not even close.

So, the next day I had 5 guys on my boat. Early on we got a few fish on top. But, on one cast one of my customers made a long hard cast and the bail shut on his Shimano spinning mid-flight...snapping the 15lb line in the air. The chug-bug sailed towards the wind blown bank in too shallow water to retrieve.

Coincidence or not...it was the exact same bait that was in my hand the day before. No biggie right? Tie another one on and keep rolling...

Well, I think that night or maybe the nxt day I posted on here the Late Summer Report and in that report I added a pic of the chug bug stuck in my hand.

So.....here is where it gets cool.

Mr. Peace was walking along the shoreline a few days ago and during that walk stumbled upon a fairly new looking fishing lure. Thinking his dog may step on it, he picked it up and realized it was in pretty darn good shape...minus ONE barb off of ONE treble,

Not really thinking much, he continued on his stroll, enjoying his walk....with the lure in his hand. Later on, upon arriving at his house he laid the lure down. Later, his son Capp stumbled upon the chug-bug and strangely enough...picked it up and thought to himself: "dang, this lure looks familiar."

Being an avid TFF'er...Capp started thinking, lol "Where in the heck have I seen this lure"

Thinking back...he realized he had seen the pic on my post and ran back to the computer and matched it up. Sure enough...it was the lure AND, there was ONE barb cut off the hook,

I'm not sure how the rest played out...but 2 days ago while I was out on a trip, these fine folks drove up to Holiday Marina to deliver my lure to me. I was not there to meet ya'll...but Teri had just come in from her trip and got the chance to receive the lure and meet ya'll.

These are the kind of stories that just don't happen all that often and PROVES that good folk still exist. Ya'll didn't have to go out of your way to return the lure...BUT, since ya'll did I'd like to extend a half day trip for ya'll here in the next few weeks to see if ole' biggun wants to eat that chug-but if you're up for it....on me.

Good stuff!

Doug with his fish:



The Chug Bug doin' it's thang:



The Good Samaritans:



Lure back home in Owners hands, lol:

Great story sir. Lots of good TFF folks out there. Mighty nice of them to take the time and effort to get your lure back to you. Very generous of you to take them fishing.

haha, that's awesome!!! I need to get back on T-wok asap!!!

This is so cool!!...we live on Tawakoni close to Holiday! (This is Jimmy's wife by the way!) The cool part of the story for us is that as someone who likes to fish and also likes to walk the bank looking for "pirate booty" as I call it lol Jimmy is always finding stuff. When Capp recognized the bait and told Jimmy the story, they thought that was something to know where it came from. Capp said he knew who it was and they decided to try and get it back to you - because how often does that happen?!! He thought the whole circle of the story was especially cool! I'm sure Capp will be getting in touch with you as he thought it would be a cool surprise for his dad! Thanks so much!! - Sylvia Peace

Cool story

Cool Story!

I think I would keep an eye on that Chug-Bug. Once it tasted human blood it probably needed to be put down. It's would make a good "B" or "C" Horror movie script for fisherman.

LOL, you are right.

It's been a wicked week...got hooked again...this time in the head, deep too:

Did it ruin your hair part:) sorry dude, that was an awesome video. I am just glad it wasn't me.

I'm surprised Ms. Terri let's you go out without supervision

Hey Michael was it the same blane chug bug? I would hang that lil lure on the mantle Cool story and start wearing a bicycle helmet

Wow! That's totally horror flick material. You're going to have quite an array of lures in solitary confinement at this rate.

It reminded me the guy in the film Happy Gilmore that had the nail in his head. He was the actor that played Jaws in the Bond Movies(RIP).

Dude you need to wear body armor.

I took one out of you a year or two ago.

Ouch! Your wife is going to make you go barbless.