Well, just got home a couple hours ago from a musky fishing trip with my dad in Canada. We have a river we always fish and it's a honey hole. Caught two nice fish in only four days. Dad's fish measured 46". Beautiful fish, long and sleek. Mine measured 43" but was a true fatty.
Seems like everything I do in the outdoors involves some sort of drama, and this was no different. With time running out on our last day, light fading fast -- and we still had to pack out all of our gear (we were fishing a lake way back in the bush) -- we decided to hit one more spot before calling it a trip. That spot was home to a monster musky around the 51-52-inch range. He'd chased in my surface lure only two days earlier but hadn't hit.
With my dad as my guide operating the boat and getting me into position, I started casting toward the lily pads. I just had a feeling something was going to go down.
About the fourth cast, this fish attacked my lure (same surface lure I'd been using off and on all trip), but the fish somehow missed it. I cast again and he came shooting out from the lily pads, tailing the lure, creating a big wake as he closed the gap and overtook it. Everything was in slow motion then...his head coming out of the water shaking the lure...the powerful deep runs...and at last to the boat for a photo.
Didn't get the 50-inch wallhanger, but really any musky is a trophy. They're the king of all freshwater fish, after all. You work so hard and put in so much time to catch the buggers...and it feels so good when you're successful! Nothing like a big fish to get your knees knockin'.
The whole situation leading up to this fish was drama filled. My dad and I kept joking that I was headed for "a showdown in the streets" with a big fish. Or, to use a different metaphor, he was putting me in to hit in the bottom of the 9th inning against the best closer in baseball.
No matter what phrase you use to describe it, only one word seems completely accurate when it comes to landing a nice fish in the last minutes of a trip with your dad...awesome!
No comments:
Post a Comment