Okay, so I go out wading with my little jig pole. I love to feel the thump or pull or snap or whatever one wishes to call the feeling of the crappie snatching the jig and trying to make off with it. That is, in my opinion, the single best feeling encountered in a fishing trip. I troll for meat, but I jig for fun. There we have the "good thump."

The past three or four times I've been out wading I have seen this enormous snake head sticking up out of the water probably no closer than 10 yards or so. I watch it as long as his head is out of the water, and I pay it no special attention. Each time I go wading, I experience the "bad thump." It happens when I'm standing in waist deep water (and not seeing the snake head) and something runs into one of my legs. That thump I can live without. I have no idea what it is.

I see some big, ugly yellowish fish in the water a lot of the time. What is that? They are big. I suspect that is the source of this bad thump. Sometimes, I catch bass which is only slightly less ugly that the unidentified fish. I think maybe some of the thumps might be from bass, and it is not unthinkable that it could be a crappie now and again.

It is bothersome to say the least. Anybody know what the fish are? Anybody ever catch one of the unseen things as it is thumping or has just finished thumping your leg?