The One That Got Away
Originally Published on Jul 29, 2011 “From the Docks” NBC Sports
I know you are all looking for more information on the great new products coming out of ICAST this year, but I need to share a fish story that’s 100% true about the one that got away; it happened a few nights back.
Like many areas of the country we have been in the midst of a heat wave here in the Midwest with temps pushing 100 and dew points so high they should be banned. Not surprisingly fishing has been slow of late, but a break in the weather the other day (85 not 97) was enough of an incentive for a couple buddies and I to plan a couple hours of after-work muskie fishing.
The fish in the lake we fished have two populations of fish—those up shallow and those suspended in deep water. The shallow fish get harassed constantly by muskie hunters, so I have been focusing more on the deep fish which move shallower late in the day as suspended crappie move up to feed on various plankton and insect larvae. Throwing a topwater in 25 feet of water seems insane, but that’s what one of us had on most of the evening while another friend threw a giant Bulldawg and another a bucktail.
After sunset, and after two hours of not moving a single fish, we were resigned that we were going to be skunked. Of course, that’s when it happened! I hooked a large fish on a copper/white Bulldawg about 2/3 of the way into a cast and my buddy Dale reached for my net. The fish wasn’t hooked well, just one of the back treble was in the left corner of the jaw, so Dale took the first shot he had. It was the right call…the fish was in the net.
The hook came out before I could reach for my pliars, so I lifted the bait from the net, grabbed a camera and got ready to take a quick photo of the fish as it rested in the big muskie net.
And that’s when it happened. The muskie shot forward with a couple powerful thrusts of its tail and blew a hole right in the side of my net! Not only did I not even get a photo of it, I never even got a good look at it!
How big was it? I really can’t tell you with any certainty other that it weighed more than 20 pounds and less than 30. Bummer.
