By Lee Tolliver
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 13, 2008
VIRGINIA BEACH
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 13, 2008
VIRGINIA BEACH
Emily Rettinger of Virginia Beach caught this bass which weighed about 11 pounds, according to her father, Gary. ''That was really cool,'' she said. ''I'm hoping that I'll catch it again some day.''
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Emily Rettinger is on the morning news team at Ocean Lakes Elementary School.
She helps broadcast important information to teachers and students on the school's closed-circuit television network.
She had plenty to tell the other day.
Emily, a 10-year-old fifth-grader and already a serious angler , had caught a bass bigger than most anglers catch in a lifetime.
She was fishing at a neighborhood water-retention pond with her father, Gary.
"When it first hit, I thought my line was going to break immediately," she said. "It was pulling so hard. I didn't know how big it really was, but I knew it was something big."
Gary Rettinger said the bass was nearly 26 inches long. He estimated it at about 11 pounds. She was using a shallow-diving, minnow like plug tied to a 6-pound test line.
"I've caught a couple around 8 pounds and it was bigger than anything I've ever caught – I'll tell you that right now," he said.
After the fish was measured , weighed and held for a few photographs, Emily put the bass back in the water and watched as it slowly swam away.
"That was really cool," she said. "I'm hoping that I'll catch it again some day. Maybe when it's even bigger."
Father and daughter didn't know it at the time, but Emily had just released a fish that would have put her in the International Game Fish Association record book.
In the association's book, the Virginia record for any angler using 6-pound test line is a 6-pound, 6-ounce largemouth. Even if her fish was 9 or 10 pounds, it would have been a record.
In addition, the association's Virginia youth angler record for largemouth bass currently is vacant. So her fish, no matter what it weighed, would have set the initial standard.
"Wow," Emily said when learning of her accomplishment.
"That's OK. It was a good feeling to let it go."
Emily, who said she has been fishing with her dad and sister Donna since she was about 6 years old, fishes a couple of times a week from her backyard shoreline.
"I catch mostly little sunnies," she said, talking about bluegill and other small sunfish. "When you cast a lure out and catch something, it doesn't matter how big or small it is.
"You know you caught it yourself and that's really something to be proud of."
She says she's looking forward to many more angling adventures.
"I'd really like to go out to sea and catch a dolphinfish," she said. "I think that would be really something. I'll probably get to go this summer."
Lee Tolliver, (757) 222-5844, lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com
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Fishing reduces stress and gives you a break from our modern world where everything is going a million miles per hour
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Check & Clear 6
LOC: 38-54-14.60N / 097-14-09.07W
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