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“Sheilas severe and unforgiving eyes”

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“It had to be an old bass- a young one wouldn’t have know the rocks were there”

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“...as bashful and as frightened as a unicorn.”

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“...my longing was like a madness and I couldn’t stop.”

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“...a corridor of hidden life that ran between banks like a tunnel.”

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“...washing her in a creamy, luminous glow.”

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“...to me she appeared unutterably suave, the epitome of sophistication.”

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“Arranging the pillows at the bow so Shelia could rest if she was in one of her pensive moods, propping my father’s radio so we could have music on the way back”

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“the moon was out now. it was low and full enough that its beam shone directly on Sheila” (172)

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“...all spoken with the same quizzical, half-accusatory tone Sheila used then.”

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“...Sheila’s severe and unforgiving eyes.”

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“There was an extra paddle in the bow, but Shelia made no effort to pick it up”

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The bass represents The more important opportunities in life, his crush on Shelia on the other hand represents a more small and in the moment want.
“Before the month was over, the spell she cast over me was gone, but the memory of that lost bass haunted me all summer and haunts me still.”

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“Then saw her in the spotlight as she came slowly down the path” (170)

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“I had to paddle up a sluggish stream that came into the river beneath a covered bridge. There was a shallow sandbar at the mouth of this stream-weeds on one side, rocks on the other.”

This proves all of the work that the narrator is putting in to impressing Sheila, and illustrates a crowded area. The narrators planning ahead supports how he is going about the situation, nervous and almost frantic.

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Sheila doesn’t look at the narrator for the entire story, as it is explicitly stated. However, towards the end of the story when Sheila leaves, she actually looks at him.
"For the first time that night she looked at me, really looked at me. ‘You’re a funny kid, you know that?’”
This is a sign that he was going through the night almost blindly, and he lost the opportunity of the bass because his true vision was clouded by his affection for Sheila. The narrator telling the story recalls all of the time when Sheila did NOT look at him, and this should have been a sign that the bass would have been a much more awarding opportunity.

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“There was a summer in my life where the only thing lovelier to me than a largemouth bass was Sheila Mant.”