by: Jim Hert 

Over the years I have seen and heard about things that have happened that Barishnikoff himself would have been proud of.  Two hundred and fifty pound men can skip, run, and tippy toe, from one end of the boat to the other, scooping up the net in one swift deft handed motion, to arrive at the other end in a tenth of a second, while yelling at the same time, "Don't horse him!"

I not only have seen it, I have done it!  Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you, "Jim Hert?  He can't walk and chew gum at the same time!"  But give me a bass boat full of stuff and my partner at the other end with a six pound bass on his line and you would swear that I had been practicing with the New York Ballet just the day before!  But the net man is not the only one who has to have nimble feet.

The person who catches the bass sometimes is faced with challenges that test his athletic ability and sure-footed-ness.  I have seen times where shortly after the bass is hooked it makes a strong run to the opposite end of the boat causing the fisherman to have to run to the other end of the boat too.  Quite often he passes his partner heading the other way with the net!  The two of them will fly through the air passing each other just like the ballet dancers jumping and flying through the air as they move across the stage.

The best fishermen will give a little nod to the other and say, "Scuse me a sec bud."  Receiving a, "No prob, just don't horse him!" in reply.  Of course the net man upon arriving at his destination at the opposite end of the boat has to perform a pirouette and immediately if not sooner get back to the end where his partner, now, is!  I have only been lucky enough to witness this a couple of times in my life and I am not too much of a man to admit that one time it made my eyes water. 

These two boys from Georgia were fishing together and one of them hooked a seven pound bass!  This fish made two opposite end runs. The fishermen passed each other twice, and the net man scooped up the fish in a single deep knee bend and smooth swipe motion catching the fish just after it jumped and threw the hook!  He caught the fish in mid air before it could fall back to the water and be lost.  

Everyone who witnessed it applauded for several minutes yelling things that could have been like "Bravo".  A few were seen to try and conceal the fact that they were wiping their eyes.  That was the first time those two Georgia boys had fished together and they have been inseparable bass fishing partners ever since.  They named their first born sons after each other too.  To this day everyone just refers to that event as, "The Net Cracker Sweet".

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