[cardsfan]

I was fishing at Cherokee Lake in TN. one summer in a tournament and was doing real good.I and my partner had our limit of Bass and was culling about all day.We got on a bigger bite and started replacing our smaller bass with bigger ones.I was texas rigging a 7-inch worm (Tequilla colored) and caught a 4 pounder or least thats what our little set of digital scales we always kept on the boat said. I quickly replaced the smaller bass with the 4 pounder and was real happy!!! About a hour left in the tourney my big fish started beating and banging on the inside of the livewell.I opened up the livewell and saw that he was bleeding from his gills and in a panic I got him out of the Livewell and was hanging over the side of the boat running him back and forth through the water watching to see if he would revive!!!  I had been trying to perform to the best of my ability bass CPR on him when all of a sudden me and the fish made eye contact and as if he had been playing dead all of a sudden he shook his head from side to side several times and I started losing my grip on him with my thumb!! I watched that fish swim away with what I will sware to this day was a big grin on his face!! Matter of fact he jumped out of the water twice before he swam away forever!!! I was ashamed to tell anybody, but my partner was not!! At the end of the year Banquet the guys I fished with all pitched in and bought me a set of thumb grips!!!!      :lmao: