A Dream Come True

After I dropped off my clients from this morning, I picked up an old friend with his grandson. Keith & Colton would be tagging along with me while I went searching for fish. With plenty of other clients coming up, I just wanted to locate more. I trolled new areas that I hadn’t touched this season looking for something different. The lake was completely flat calm with lots of floating grass making trolling quite difficult at times. I had to clean the rods too often and decided to relocate. I also had to raise the top with the heat & humidity! We spent what seemed like forever without a bite and I could see that Colton was getting a little bored. Keith explained to him that this happens sometimes when you’re looking for fish. At  9 years old, you just want to catch something! Well eventually I moved to deeper water and one of the rods bent. Although the reel didn’t fire, the rod bent pretty good. Colton had finally got his wish and was into a pretty large northern. After a couple of pics, we released the pike and resumed the troll. I was marking what seemed like walleye but for some reason couldn’t get a hook up. Later in the afternoon we finally got a little breeze and another reel fired off. This one was a nice smallmouth and Colton was quickly back on the rod. He had a little more difficulty reeling this fish in with how hard it was fighting. I netted the three pounder and took a few more pics before releasing it  again. Now he was happy and looking for more! We got the lines back in and went a little while longer without any action and then the wind started. It was kicking up much better that earlier creating a good chop on the water. It also felt good with the heat! When the next reel fired, it went off hard. It didn’t seem like a normal hit and I was pretty sure what it was. I handed the rod to Colton and instructed him  what to do. We brought the other lines in and awaited the confirmation. It was all he could do just to hold the rod and keep the line tight with the weight on the line. Even before we saw the fish, I knew he had his very first lunge. It was just too strong and never left the bottom. The fight went on for a while with the light line he was on, as this was supposed to be a walleye troll. Although exhausted, he quickly overcame it and went into adrenaline mode. When the fish finally jumped, he really dug deep into what strength he had left for the remainder of the battle. Keith wanted me to help but I refused and just kept on the small motor keeping him close. Colton was to battle this beast on his own! He fought it like a champ and when I finally got a chance, I put the Boga Grip on his catch. A sigh of relief was had by all as I removed the lure and prepped for a few quick pics. I kept the musky under water the whole time so that it wasn’t stressed any more than it already was. When I finally brought it aboard, It was for about 45 seconds for several quick shots and right back in for the release. It took only seconds before she kicked and swam off unharmed. No worse for wear, she made a kid’s dream a reality! I think a little later, this will sink in and Colton will realize just exactly what had happened. I know of only one other kid that has caught fish like this at his age and his dad does this all the time with his clients too. Once all the smoke had settled and things got a little calmer, I decided to call it a day. Everything else after this would just be downhill. No sense continuing after a high like this! I’m sure they had a lot to talk about on their drive back home. With all that excitement, they would be reliving every single minute of the fight. They may not have brought any walleye home for dinner, but I think this was much better. Sort of like icing on the cake!!