A Big Surprise

Andrew was with me today, along with his wife and son Nicolas. We began in a NE wind and apparently made the right call for our starting spot. I had barely gotten the rods in the holders when one fired! Nick was about to land his first pike and the second one went off allowing his step mother to reel hers in too. They had requested pike today and were rewarded quickly. For the next several hours, they were to have plenty of action with many rotations by all. The pike were mostly great looking and had obviously recuperated well, after their spawn.

Late in the morning when the action had slowed down, I made a move to another area hoping for a better bite. The waves were bigger when we were out in the open, with the wind blowing against the current flow. This big run however wasn’t lost once we arrived and began fishing. We were somewhat sheltered in the new area and I was confident we would catch some fish from here.

Within the first 15 minutes we had a bite and the reel fired hard! I was pretty sure what it was when I passed the rod to Nick and immediately cleared all the lines. He was into a musky and I needed room for him to do battle. Lighter pike & walleye tackle always make the fight interesting. It took him about 5 minutes before I was able to net her and remove the hooks. With the season still closed, I was quick to release his catch. It may not have been a monster, but it was his first and worthy of a few water pics before swimming off, unharmed. Definitely a welcomed surprise for everyone on board! We finished off the afternoon trolling for pike and walleye and unfortunately nothing was to top what had previously happened. Despite the slow fishing later in the day, everyone was thrilled with their experience. Nicolas was definitely elated as he had landed his first ever pike and musky today! It was a win, win on all accounts!