Just Fishing

Weekend Report

Tue, February 07, 2012

Its only been four weeks since I last got out fishing. That’s a long stretch for me most times of the year but not usually in the winter. That’s the one time I can go for months instead of weeks, but not this year. While some people are surely cursing this circumstance, I am thanking the heavens. This whole “off season” has been a blessing: Almost no shoveling, no cold spells where going outside means having your nose hairs freeze, for my family many less illnesses than usual, and no patches of skin so dry its painful. Those things alone would make me feel pretty lucky and then you add in soft water to fish. All I can say is wow.

So Cam and I head down to Spring. He tells me he wants to fish the IMTT there in March. I have never fished a tournament of any kind and have always been curious about competing. I think Cam and I will partner someday, but for now I’m not convinced as he doesn’t really cast all that much on our trips. So he says he’s gonna show me that he’s ready by pitching all day. And long story short, he does.

It is absolutely beautiful for February. We are bundled up some but comfortable all day. Its not an original idea and we find a number of boats on the lake and one just in front of us as we launch. It doesn’t take long and I haul back on the first strike of the day. After a fun battle I hand land a 32 incher. Skunk out of the boat, check. Not ten minutes later Cam hollers “got one” from the back of the boat. I turn to see his rod doubled over. He does a great job fighting our second fish and again we land a nice little ski.

The temps are only in the mid 30’s at this point but we could feel any warmer. We talked about how this was a nice way to start considering you always go through long lulls when muskie fishing. And we did. Often times I’ll hook a fish and then hand it to Cam to fight to the boat. Its always better when he hooks them himself. He told me his goal for the day was to land two on his own lure. He was off to a good start. As we moved around casting it was pretty hard to find open water to fish. While Spring is 500+ arcres it fishes very small. Most guys I encounter any more for the most part know what they’re doing, so most of the better areas had a boat on them most of the morning. We still managed a couple more fish before noon. Cam got his second bite but unfortunately the fish came unbuttoned after a short battle. To say he was unhappy would be an understatement. Still he keep casting. Here’s one I hooked that he helped land.

We decided to make a move to the north end of the lake for awhile to see if we could get away from all the boats. We did. And about mid-afternoon another “got one” call came from the back of the boat. Cam got the better of this fish and reached his goal of two on his own lure. I was pretty proud and enjoyed this more than if I’d have caught the fish.

I thought with the water warming and the sun getting lower in the sky fishing might get even better as evening approached. Wrong. The fish seemed to disappear. We were both ok with this as we had already done well. We were both pretty weary so we headed in and then headed home. What a treat in a month that is usual the worst of the year.

I hope there are guys out there that would like to get out with me this year and enjoy some great fishing adventures. You can give me a call at 815 433-6109. Fishing Friend Guide Service The fish are already biting.

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