Just Fishing

President’s Day

Wed, February 22, 2012

The best part of this weekend was having Cam deciding he wanted his own tackle box and then going to Bass Pro to get it. I told Cam he didn’t need to spend his own money but he insisted. That was cool. After a long look at the new KVD box, or should I say bag, he settled on a less expensive camo bag. He then picked out a few lures, which I was doing too. We headed to checkout where he broke out his own money. He was thrilled as was I.

Monday couldn’t come quick enough. When we headed out the door it was 21 degrees. By the time we got on the water it was all of 29. And did I mention the wind? It was already blowing 10 or better. So I was still bundling up, sharpening hooks, checking drags when Cam threw his first cast. And he hooks up! After a short battle we have a 33 incher in the boat. That was fun.

Does Cam look like he was ready for the cold? At least this warmed us up for a minute. I got a little one about 20 minutes later and it looked like it was gonna be quite a day. And then the reality of muskie fishing set in. That means it was a long time till the next bite. And the wind picked up. We spent the rest of the morning battling the wind and being cold. How cold were we? At noon we headed back to the car to eat lunch there.

After lunch we decided to move to the other side since there it is more wind protected. This turned out to be a good idea. Not at first. We spent another 2 hours without a bite. Then about two o’clock I set the hook and handed the rod to Cam. He landed a nice 30 incher. This made him a little unhappy since he was ahead of me in fish early and then tied most of the day. Now he was behind. He kept casting and in that type of cold that wasn’t easy. Then I set the hook again. This time he battled a nice 37 incher to the boat. We were both excited. He wanted to learn how to grab it by the gill the way I do. So I explained it and he tried. You can see by the picture he was having some trouble.

The wind was blowing pretty hard still and it was getting colder at this point. At least the crowd was thinning out. Anyone thinking about fishing out there for the next couple months better be ready to deal with lots of boats. We started debating leaving. As we talked I told Cam we should hang in for a while as many times one fish will lead to another. He pointed out our 6 hour fishless span earlier in the day. That was a good point and I started slowly towards the ramp. I was interupted by a strike. When I leaned back I could tell it was a better fish and told Cam to get the net. It was a great battle with a number of long runs and then dives under the boat, Cam, who was more calm than I was, slipped the net under what would turn out to be a 40 1/2 inch ski. What a great way to end the day. While those fish are out there, they don’t show up too often.

This is shaping up to be quite a year.

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