Thief! Don't stop!

[farmpond1]

The other day I was out at my favorite pond.  I could see bass swimming lazily about but could not convince any of them to bite my standard offerings.  After awhile I gave up (or almost did).  There were tons of bluegill around so I got out my fly rod.  Before I tied on a bluegill popper, I decided, what the heck, I'd tie on a large bass bug.  It didn't take any time at all before I landed and released 5 bass.  They behaved as though they'd never seen an artificial bait in their lives.  No trepidation or hesitation whatsoever.  Eventually the action slowed so I decided to tie on the smaller popper for the bluegill I'd originally expected to pursue.  Almost immediately I hooked an average size bluegill.  As it spun and cartwheeled around, a nice bass came out of nowhere.  It began chasing the bluegill around-more or less right in front of me.  At first I thought it was pursuing the bluegill and wondered why it was waiting so long to gobble it up.  But after 7 or 8 turns I realized it was trying to steal the popper out of the bluegills mouth.  Apparently, there was enough of the hook point sticking out that it snagged the bass' mouth and for a few seconds I had two fish on my 5-weight flyrod.  The bass quickly shook himself loose but not before destroying my popper.  Although I've heard of bass trying to steal bait away from another fish, I never witnessed it before then.  It refused to quit until it got hooked.  Hungry/greedy/lazy beggar!

[brushhoggin]

nature rules

[b.Lee]

Never heard of or seen that happen. Cool story

[DRhodes]

great story, i bet that was a sight to see, but more importantly I bet that was a great fight on a fly rod with 2 fish on it haha.

[snuffy33]

I've had 2 or 3 bass try and take a senko away from one I was bringing in.

Also have had it happen to fish hooked on spinnerbaits.

None have ever got the job done.

[BASSINATORBIGJOE]

GREAT STORY. YOU JUST NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON ANY GIVEN TRIP. 8-)

[farmpond1]

It still amazes me how different their attitude was toward the bass popper and how badly the one bass wanted to steal the tiny morsel (bluegill popper) from the bluegill.  Seems he could've eaten 3 or 4 small bluegill in that timeframe.  They were everywhere.

[Kayakist]

My favorite popper story:  My friend was new to fishing, he put on a popper and was just doing a straight out and back retrieve.  I stopped and showed him how to work a popper, on my second pop a bluegill took the bait.  He then cast out and immediately caught a nice smallmouth.  We both had smiles from ear to ear.

[farmpond1]

Update:  Can't say for certain it was the same bass but tonight, in the same area as before, a larger bass stole my rapala from a smaller bass.  There seems to be a crime spree in the neighborhood!