Damn bobbers!

I dont usually find topwater plugs on the bank. Maybe because the plugs aren't usually neon orange and yellow. But I just dont. On the other hand, I have quite a large collection of floats, bobbers, popping corks, leader material, weights, hooks, line, TRASH that I find almost routinely along more populated areas that I am forced to explore and fish. Im not saying all bobber fisher's are lazy or irresponsible. I have broken off lures on fish too. But it seems that the rig I find now is increasingly streamline in relation. Bobber, plastic covered steel leader, 4 ot trebel hook on a clip, yards of line ahead of the cork, ect.

Last friday I walked out to a new spot I have been fishing. On the way out I noticed a bobber floating. There are a couple piers along the way that I pass in front of to legally access the area of interest without trespassing or risk being towed. I thought the popper might be owned by the guy on the pier, but when I looked back I was about 75 yards from the pier where the guy was fishing. I looked back to the bobber and it was gone, I looked at the pier and the guy was reeling so I(although this seemed unlikely)assumed that it was his . I thought that he might have let his line drift with the current but there probably wasnt much line on the reel! I looked back to my destination and started walking. Then the bobber came back up in my path. There was a fish on the hook! I walked very slowly up to the cork and with a topwater reeled up to the tip of my rod I swiped at the float snagging the line underneath. When I lifted the rod tip the mess of monofilament and leader was thoroughly jacked around the plug. The fish on the end shot off like lightning! I lightly played the fish( which turned out to be a 4 pound trout) and landed her. I got my forceps and expected to pop out the hook and let her go but it was all the way in her gut. All 4 ot's. I left her 3/4 submerged while bending the clip and working it loose from the hook eye. When free I slipped her back into the water and she swam off strong. I dont know if the fish would have lived, but I didnt catch her. So I wasnt putting the fish on my stringer. Reguardless of how the fish was hooked it was free and I could go on to strike out for the 2 hours of fishing that day. Even though I didnt catch anything I slogged back to the truck with a good feeling about life and later expeditions into the great outdoors.