However, yesterday evening after work, I hit Brushy Creek for the first time (I changed my mind about it  again on Sunday).  It was awesome.  My experience basically matches that of the angler in this article, except that I wasn't fly fishing this time, but using small spinners.  I managed to find some spinners that didn't have treble hooks, thank goodness.  I think treble hooks are unnecessary (basically, if you are going to get a hook-up with a spinner, the fish is going to have to really try to eat it, and switching from three hooks to one doesn't decrease the chances of hooking up more than maybe ten percent) and often cause major problems in releasing fish.  The last thing that happened before I headed back to the car was flipping my lure right in front of a dark shape I was pretty sure was a catfish, and having it get hit, and then, as I went to set the hook, bitten off cleanly.  I guess that's the price to pay for having landing a one-pound bluegill feel like an epic battle.

I had a sad thought as I landed and went about releasing this truly monster bluegill, which was that I really, really would have liked to go home and e-mail my grandfather about this trip.  He liked the big panfish.