My Tongue is Bowed – What Can I Do to Fix It?

November 23, 2023 Thanksgiving Day – (#267)

It happened suddenly at the boat landing.

It was at the end of my Monday trip up the river. That‘s the one when I lost a musky on a sucker harness and had another musky steal my rig. It was not just a hook, line and sinker loss but instead a sucker, the harness, sinker, leader, line and rod and reel and the expensive rod holder.

That Monday was a great solo trip without catching a musky and I did recover everything except the sucker after the rig got yanked out of the boat. However, it was at the landing while getting the boat onto the trailer and then out of the water where my tongue got bent out of shape.

There were a couple fellas that had arrived just ahead of me and two more than arrived after I got there. I had to wait a bit to load up which meant I had spectators as I backed into the water, loaded the boat by hand and got ready to drive away.

In A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold wrote about the shifting sands of the Wisconsin River. The river still has a sandy bottom. At the landing however, the bottom is not smooth or flat like most of the river. Instead there are deep holes which are the result of all the boat captains that power load their boat onto their trailers. When they rev their engines up to get the boat up onto the trailer the sand below gets blown off the bottom and out into the channel. The result are sudden drop offs where the water can go from knee deep to belt high quickly.

I do not power load my boat in river current or on windy days. My trailer has side bunkers but when the fella I purchased the boat and trailer from accompanied me on my first river trip I had him be the captain so I could note and observe how he handled the rig. Upon returning to the landing that day I told him I would back the trailer in and use the rope to pull the boat on far enough to get the winch strap’s hook attached to the boat. He told me he’d just power load the boat. 

I caved in and allowed him to demonstrate how to do it. The result was just what I was accustomed to when I attempt to power load in current and windy conditions. What I feared on that day when he was about to “gun” the Evinrude 50 horse outboard is exactly what happened. 

He struggled to get the boat lined up well enough to load it straight onto the trailer and twice had to put the engine in reverse and go back out into the channel. On the third try he was in about the same position as he was on the first two attempts but he was determined. He was somewhat lined up but I could tell he was not going to do it smoothly. 

He gave it gas and headed for the trailer. As he got closer I held my breath. By the time the bow reached the back of the boat the current and wind had moved the stern down river too much to get a good shot at the trailer.

With a wild look on his face he gunned it again and crashed into the starboard side of the bow. The boat came to a sudden stop and was on top of the bunker instead of inside of it. In the process of attempting all this the result was, he’d bent that starboard bunker badly. Actually he had bent the upright braces on each end so much they and the bunker were flattened in the water.

I told him I’d take it from there. I waded into the river and applied a lot of pressure to the bow and was successful in getting the boat slid it onto the bottom slides and pulled it far enough ahead to get the winch strap hook attached. Then I winched the boat to the front of the trailer.

Once home I I removed the bunker, clamped it in my huge outdoor vice, heated the bent side bunker metal and used my 8 pound maul to pound the bunker back up to its original shape where it would be able to do its job correctly.

I have not attempted a power load at all. I wade in during warm weather and water temps and once the water temps drop I use knee high or hip boots to pull the boat onto the trailer and I wonder how many more years I will have the strength to do that.

The traffic at the boat landing since duck season opened has been heavier than prior to that season beginning. The river, being so low all summer meant that boat owners with large bass boats, pontoons and other pleasure craft didn’t use the landing for fear of causing all kinds of problems with their engines. The boat traffic that was present at the landing included guys like me with boats manufactured for river travel. Tunnel hulls, jon boats with surface motors or jet drives or jet outboards.

Once duck season started there have been more boats and nearly every captain power loads their craft which creates deep holes about just out into the river past the ends of their trailers. Once the  holes in the bottom are there my trailer wheels drop down into the holes and my boat is harder to get on the trailer and I must wade out farther and risk stepping into them. Lately the holes are numerous and when I back my trailer out there the starboard side wheel drops down and the bunker goes under the surface. It is a chore to get the boat on. 

On Monday it took me about 20 minutes just to get the boat on the trailer when prior to this issue it would take me 15 minutes to load and drive home. On Monday when I started to drive out of the water my passenger side trailer wheel crashed into the launch side of the hole so my boat stayed on top of the water as I pulled forward. I was going pretty fast just to get the rig out of the water without spinning my wheels so when the tire hit the wall of that hole the trailer bounced up. I pulled ahead to park and secure the boat to the trailer for the trip home. I and the other fisherman at the landing noticed that the bow was a lot lower than normal. I looked down and saw that the tongue on the trailer was cracked and bent right under the winch pedestal. I was not a happy boat owner. Disheartened would be a good descriptor of the emotion I was experiencing.

The tongue on the trailer is a piece of 3” square steel that is 102 inches long. The steel is only 1/16th of an inch thick. The damage is so severe that the only way to safely fix it is to buy a new tongue. Without a new one I can’t safely take the boat out on the roads. That means my 2023 fishing trips are over. That saddens me.

I will replace the tongue and start thinking about ice out in the late spring.

Have a great winter. I’m sure there will be ice fishing stories and other outdoor adventures to write about. Leave a comment and tell our friends about these stories.

Bob

JUST A NICE PIKE TODAY

November 21, 2023 (#266)

I awoke before dawn this morning and watched a few YouTube videos on a variety of topics all the while thinking about today’s trip to the river in pursuit of fish. 

When daylight arrived I could see that it was snowing and some of it was sticking to the ground. I went back to listening to a couple of podcasts I listen to every day. While listening my thoughts turned away from Keith Olbermann and to my plan of fishing today. I decided that I was not going to leave home to go fishing if there was precipitation of any kind in the air. I went back to concentration on the last five minutes of Countdown with Keith.

After checking my weather app and noting that precipitation was not in the forecast for the afternoon I left the possibility of a river trip open. I had to go to Walgreen’s in Portage to get my “old people” RSV shot at 9:45 and also to the dentist in Windsor so morning fishing was out of the realm of possibility from the get go.

After returning home with no precipitation falling I decided to go forward with my original plan. After a quick sandwich I was toting things from the basement to the garage and into the boat. I was off and on the water by 1 pm. I had my last medium size sucker in the water at 1:15.

At 2:00 PM the float dipped under the water and was being tugged farther from the boat. I let it go a bit but when it moved to the right I the end of my Okuma Musky rod the opposite way and a short battle was on. In the end a pike had chosen a mid-afternoon meal but lost out before it could get the fish in its gullet. I reeled the fish to the side of the boat and estimated it to be about 28”. I reached into the bag with my long handled pliers, removed the treble hooks then flipped the net over and let the fish swim away. 

I continued fishing until 3:15 without seeing any more fish. Could that pike have been the fish with garlic breath? I didn’t get my sniffer very close throughout the unhooking and releasing operation but I didn’t smell garlic either. 

Before I left home in preparation  for the trip to the river I I was getting things organized. I noticed that I was missing a bait box filled with a variety and colors of Suick and Bobbie Baits. I looked around in the garage and the boat but could not locate it. I am thinking that it must have blown out of the boat on Sunday while on my way to the landing. If that is the case some lucky person got a small gold mine as there had to be about $200 worth of baits in that box. I looked around again today and drove slowly down County JV looking in the ditches for a brown and gold single level tackle box. I didn’t find the box that had made a get-away.

I was planning on a Wednesday trip which would probably be my final 2023 boating/fishing adventure. However, the tongue on my Shorelander trailer was bent and I decided not to risk a terrible adventure where a boat trailer might be unhitched from the truck. 

I wish I could have reported that a huge fish that may have eaten my stick of bologna on Monday had eaten my medium sized sucker but I can’t.

Have a great Thanksgiving day and weekend. After you finish gorging yourself on all the great food you really ought to be working on your Christmas wish list. If you’ve already started one just look through the Black Friday and Shop Small ads and add some great item to the list and cross your fingers in hopes of receiving the stuff in about a month.

Until my next outdoor adventure, here’s wishing you the best.

Bob

Garlic Flavored Esox Musquinongy tomorrow?

November 20, 2023 (#265)

Today I spent the better share of the morning trying to organize all my fishing paraphernalia. The plan was to take yet another trip to the river.

The plan was to go back to where yesterday’s giant is hanging out, toss jerk baits and soak suckers. I still had two medium size suckers as well as six or seven smaller ones advertised as pike-sucker. During the sorting process I located a couple of sucker rigs I have had for a number of years but had never used. I intended to use three lines today. Two would feature sucker rigs while the third one would be a casting and retrieving rig.

There were about half a dozen strange vehicles with boat trailers attached to them parked in the Dekorra boat landing parking area. Since I didn’t recognize any of them I figured the owners were probably in the river bottom in trees in hopes of harvesting white tailed deer.

I pulled away from the boat landing just after midday and headed for a spot between Dekorra and Portage. I was filled with excited anticipation. I knew that getting a chance at the giant from yesterday might be a stretch but if I didn’t go back there would be no chance. The river was about the same as it was yesterday with about seven concrete slabs out of the water at the landing. That meant I’d be able to cruise all the way to Portage with no trouble if I chose to .

When I arrived at the giant musky’s residence I glided to a stop after turning off the outboard. I was moving quickly to get the trolling motor operational. My level of anticipation was keen and I wanted to get two suckers harnessed then start casting and retrieving. A road block of sorts presented itself immediately. The trolling motor was misbehaving. I was struggling to get the motor and the remote control in sync. After about 10 minutes of fussing with it I managed to get the two pieces of apparatus communicating but your guess is as good as mine as to what was ailing those pieces of electronic devices.

I hooked up one of the larger suckers to a quick set rig and tossed it into water. It seemed to be working correctly and the sucker was really active. I was in spot lock mode on the trolling motor and in about 11 feet of water. I had the sucker placed about halfway to the bottom.

As I was fussing with the smaller sucker rig I kept a close eye on the rig in the water. Not long after I had started on rig #2 I looked across the surface to check the first float but couldn’t see it. My first thought was that the sucker must be pulling the float under when suddenly the line was being stripped from the reel in front of me.

I have watched dozens of YouTube videos where many pro fishermen and guides demonstrate how to use a quick set rig to get a good hook set. The float was moving straight away from me so I was waiting for the predator to go either toward the stern or the bow. My self talk reminded me that I was anchored within a few feet of where I saw that giant musky yesterday. “This really can’t be happening,” I thought to myself.

The top of the float suddenly went under the surface but I could see it moving toward the bow. I had the rod in my hands with the reel in my right hand and my left hand on the rubber handle in front of the reel. I bent my knees, got a tight grip and quickly extended my legs and ripped the rod tip toward the gray clouds far above me.

The weight of the predator on the other end of the line indicated a large fish and suddenly it had changed direction and was at the surface quickly. It had a bright white belly and shiny gold sides. It was wreathing and writhing and head shaking in an attempt to either get rid of the fish or just hang on tight for a noon meal when the sucker got tossed into the air.

I don’t think I managed to get either one of the treble hooks into that fish’s jaw. As quickly as the battle had started it ended suddenly and violently.

I remember yelling, “Dah Gonni,” or something like that. The fish was not the giant I saw yesterday. I’d guess or estimate it to be in the mid-30  category but it was a musky and it had been a “sucker for my sucker rig. “

Now disheartened after the short battle I sat down and took a swig of water as I wondered what I could have done differently. Quick set rigs are meant to be kind to the predator fish. Years ago fishermen using live bait were known to say, “after the fish takes the bait, light a cigarette, enjoy it and when it’s out SET THE HOOK”.

That method killed a lot of undersized fish because in the time it took to do the cigarette thing the fish would have swallowed the hooks. When the fishermen set the hooks they would get embedded in the fish’s throat and cause deadly results. An undersized fish would be returned to the water but would certainly die soon thereafter.

Today most musky fishermen engage in “catch and release” which means get the hook set so they are in the jaw and not the throat and get them in the net quickly so as to not stress the fish out. An anger should leave the fish in the net where it can breathe. The hooks should be removed while the fish is in “the bag” then carefully lifted out and some pictures should be taken quickly. Fish can’t hold their breath very long without getting stressed.

I may have been premature in my hook setting today but I can assure you that I did not hurt that fish. IT will be there for me or another angler.

I kept the sucker in the water and added a second rig soon after missing. I also used nearly every jerk bait in my arsenal and there are a lot of them. I fished for another 2 hours before deciding to move a bit closer to the other stream flowing past the mouth of the one I was on. I used the trolling motor to slowly maneuver the boat and left the sucker in the water and sort of dragged it behind me.

When I bought the boat in May it came equipped with rod holders and the bases for those are bolted to the gunnels on both sides. However, something is askew with the setup. When I try to insert the rod holder into those bases the holder itself is awry. They are 180 degrees wrong.

Today I had decided to set the holders in backward knowing full well they weren’t very secure. The rod was hanging loosely in the holder. I was simply using the method to move from one spot to another without reeling in the sucker. As I was moving the boat I glanced back at the float when “Wham!” a musky attacked the sucker that was being dragged on the surface.  Not only did it grab the sucker it started swimming the other direction. The strike was so solid that it yanked the rod holder out of its base. Then the base and rod were headed for the river. I lunged to save it but it was too late. The rod disengaged from the holder which headed for the bottom 11’ below. The rod splashed into the water and the fish was now towing the float and rod away from me. I quickly grabbed the other sucker rig and tossed the second sucker out there to try to catch my rig that was headed for who knows where. After dragging the sucker and rigging about 15’ the musky must have let go without being hooked. The float is a tubular one made of balsa wood. It’s about a foot long and an inch in diameter. The rod is an expensive one piece that is 9’ long so the combination of the balsa wood and hollow rod allowed both of those items to be sticking about an inch above the surface. I grabbed the remote off the floor of the boat and increased the speed to the maximum power headed for my stuff.

First of all I couldn’t believe my bad luck (well actually I can) but I also couldn’t believe my good luck. It appeared as though I was going to be able to save the entire rig. I finally caught up to the entire mess, reached down and grabbed the tip of the rod, saving it and me some money to replace the rod and reel as well as the float.

I fished for another hour before calling it a day. But get this. I rigged one of the sucker rigs with half a ring of garlic scented/flavored ring bologna. I tossed that out there and about 15 minutes later there were all kinds of water rings emanating off the round float on that rig. Something was actually nibbling on that sausage.

Perhaps it was a turtle. The water was 40 degrees but I had seen one swimming earlier. Perhaps it was a pike or a musky. Those small rings around the float stopped when it started moving across the surface. I thought about the cigarette story the old timers told but alas I have never been a user of tobacco. Instead I chose to wait until the float stopped moving.

It took far less time for the float to stop than it would have to have a smoke. At that point I let ‘er rip! The spherical shaped, styrofoam float came flying back at me and settled softly on the surface.

 What could have been munching on my sausage?

It will forever be a mystery for when I reeled in the entire rig the sausage was gone.

It surely was an adventure again today. Tomorrow I am going back hoping to catch a fish with bad breath. 

Have a great day!

Bob

I Have Been Called Back To The River

November 19, 2023 (#264)

Cast, then jerk and reel again and do it all over again and again.

The new Piscifun 400 baitcasting reel I purchased a week ago got it’s first workout today. 16-year-old Ben Schaumann and I had planned a fishing trip for today. He arrived right on time and we were on the water as the temperature was rising at the same rate our heightened anticipation was.

I’d made a trip to my fishing sponsor, M&M Tackle It bait tackle shop in Portage where Matt netted a few large suckers, some smaller pike-sized suckers and about two dozen large fathead minnows. In had the boat ready to go so it didn’t take long to get to the water. There were several cars in the Dekorra Landing parking lot but I figured most of those people would be dressed in blaze orange and in a tree on Lib’s Island or on the Caledonia or Pacific side lowland areas seeking venison.

We launched the Sea Ark and made a quick trip to Davis’ slough only to find a pair of guys throwing huge baits for large fish. We didn’t want to pass by them and intrude on their outing because that would just not be cool. They beat us there and deserved to fish on.

Instead we headed up the river and fished some other haunts where Esox musquinongy hang out. That was our primary specie to target in the first couple hours of our anticipated 5-6 hour trip. Of course we’d be happy with any fish that liked the looks of our offerings.

Because I was eager for us to get after it I told Ben to use the new baitcaster while I got things organized to hook up some live bait. Ben was doing a great job of breaking in that new 400 so I grabbed my Okuma Musky rod equipped with a ABU Garcia Ambassadeur 6500. I hooked up a Chaos Tackle walleye pattern Posiedon while Ben was throwing a new Berkley swim bait in what appeared to be a perch pattern.

After about a half hour of pitching that heavy Poseidon to the left, right and rear I took a short break to get a sucker harness ready. I am not an expert at rigging up suckers for musky so it took me a while to get things in order. The sucker harness I had was a bit too long for the length of suckers I had so I had to make a few adjustments. After what seemed like an hour but was really one fourth of that, I had one in the water.

I got back to casting but switched out the Poseidon for a 10” Suick that at one time was really beat up. I had picked it up for a couple bucks at a garage sale about 10 years ago figuring on fixing it up and adding a new paint job. I did that two years ago. I have used it on numerous occasions with no action at all but I decided that it was going to be the plug I was going to use today.

As the slow current moved us toward the faster one ahead of us, we were casting, chatting and having a great time. I already told you that I am a novice when it comes to working a Suick, a Smity, and other old-time jerk baits. However a couple of weeks ago one of my favorite musky fishing YouTubers, young Fisher Smith whom I don’t think is old enough to get a driver’s license put out a video of himself throwing and retrieving a 10” weighted Suick with a pattern close to the one I had painted on the piece of wood I have. I watched and listened intently to that video and today I tried to mimic Fisher’s technique.

The Solunar tables minor period today was from 11:54 am to 1:54 pm. Moon rise was at 12.54. I knew all that before we left my house. I check that website every morning. As a matter of fact Ron Buzzell texted me this morning to ask when the minor and moonrise was for today.

During today’s minor period and almost to the very minute of moon rise I was really getting the hang of cast, jerk, reel, twitch, twitch, reel etc. Adding to my anticipation was the fact that Ben had changed equipment opting for his spinning outfit with a Rapala jerk bait with some gold on the sides and a black back. He had been getting some strikes on that thing but had not hooked anything.

I was in the back of the boat standing on the craft’s floor while Ben was atop the front deck. As we approached moonrise I tossed a long cast across the bow and starting the sequence. I had sent that cast in the direction of the bow so the retrieve broughtit back to me on the starboard side, past Ben. As the Suick came into my view with it’s metal tail glistening in the sunlight I noticed something a bit under and behind the bait.

To my astonishment it was a giant musky. I mean I’m postive it was larger than the 5-.5: giant I caught in September. That fish followed all the way to where the bait was just about in front of me and sort of just floated in place about 18 inches below the surface. I was dumfounded and lost my musky fishing composure. I yelled at Ben as I watched that giant’s gill plates open a close three or four times while it just sort of suspended there while I stared at it instead of getting a figure 8 going. Then I got my wits back and started a figure 8 and the fish followed for a ways but instead of snapping the butt of the rod like Fisher  Smith does to continue his jerky retrieve I just did a regular figure it. The fish followed long enough for Ben to get a look at it’s massive head then disappeared.

My heart was racing. I quickly reverted back to doing a figure 8 in Fisher’s jerky method. Ben yelled at me to get the sucker closer to boat but I couldn’t figure 8 and move to reel in the sucker at the same time.
I am not real great at doing two important things at once. I did three or four more figure 8 moves in hopes that the giant would return and give me a shot at a second 50+” fish in such a short time span.

It didn’t happen. The fish didn’ respond to my belated technique. I kept casting and retrieving for a few minutes before we moved on downstream where Ben got a few more taps on that Rapala he was using.

After a while we chose to head back toward the boat landing. Ben had never trolled for walleyes and I haven’t done that for at least two and a half decades. He grabbed a colorful deep running crank bait and tossed it in and we headed up the river at 1.4 mph.. It wasn’t long and he asked me how he would know if a fish was taking his colorful offering. I told him what to expect.

Not more than 10 seconds after I told him that when a fish strikes his bait the tip of his rod would stop vibrating and that the tip would suddenly move toward me, his rod did that exact thing.

Ben was pretty excited. No, Ben was extremely excited as he raised up off the seat and headed back toward me. He was talking a blue streak as he reeled in whatever was on the distal end. “I has to be a fish,” he yelled. As it got closer to the boat we noticed that it was a sauger – and a huge one!

I had the net ready and as he pulled the fish closer and closer to the stern I reached back with the musky net and secured the first sauger that Ben Schamumann had ever caught. It was just over 18”. That is a great first-fish for the 16 year old angler. His excitement made the day complete. He was as excited as I had been when I didn’t catch that leviathan earlier. Here is a shot of Ben and his Fish

We fished until 2:30 and had to call it day because Ben had a family gathering he needed to be at by 4 and his drive to Heartland was more than an hour from my house. We made it back to my house, cleaned his sauger and I sent him on his way. He really had a great day.

After he left I hooked up a hose to my Evinrude E-Tec and winterized it because today was to be my final 2023 fishing trip in the great boat I purchased back in May.

But wait!

Tomorrow’s forecast calls for a high of 46. The minor period is from 12:21 pm – 2:21 pm and of course moonrise is a the midpoint of that time span – 1:21 pm.

I’ll be in that musky’s front yard, back yard and side yard casting, jerking, reeling, twitching and hoping that giant is hungry.

Have a great day!

Bob

It was a musky but the result was not what I thought it should be or could have been

November 5, 2023 (#263)

There are times when things don’t turn out like they could.

Today’s fishing trip up the Wisconsin River was a solo one for me. The high water in the river during the past week along with the freezing temperatures and nearly freezing daytime temps meant that my boat stayed in the garage and my lithium batteries were stored in the house. Today was a great day to get out there though because the water level was five feet lower than it had been and provided plenty of depth so I didn’t have to worry about hitting the sandy bottom. I did however, need to be vigilant while operating the boat so as to not hit the floating debris flowing downstream.

When I reached the landing a boat with two duck hunters was just arriving after a morning of slow duck shooting. As a matter of fact they didn’t have any ducks at all. According to them there were few ducks flying and their attempts at very long shots resulted in missed shots. They were down river from the Dekorra landing so I asked them how much debris had been lurking just under the surface. The report was, “Yes there is, so be careful.”

I decided to motor to a spot I like that is about halfway to Portage. As I approached that spot I noted that another solo fisherman was there ahead of me. I watched him launch a pretty good sized plug into the air. The splash it created as it hit the water told me that he was hoping to catch the same species I was hoping to catch. Those being Esox lucius and Esox Esox masquinongy – northern pike and muskellunge. As I slowed down and started to pass by him he asked me, “are you Bob?”

I told him I was but asked him why he would think that a fisherman coming there today might be named and that he’d be correct. About that time I noticed the owner of the new home high atop the bluff above our fishing spot. I had met the new owner earlier this fall at the Dekorra landing and in conversation learned that he is the owner of the new home and the pier at the base of the bluff. I have chatted with him a couple more times on a couple recent fishing trips to where I was now. I yelled up to him to say hello and he asked me if I was Bob. I quickly answered yes and he wished me good luck. Then the other fisherman told me that when he arrived he was asked if he was Bob so that’s why he asked if I was Bob.

As it turns out Gary, the fisherman I had just met is quite a musky chaser himself and as a matter of fact told me that he had caught a 44” musky yesterday. That started off a conversation that resulted in us pulling our boats up against each other, me pushing my spot lock button to keep us in place while we spent about 15 more minutes just getting to know each other while chatting about Esox masquinongy. He showed me an assortment of baits that he has that were created by Tom Harrison, a Portage fella that specializes in baits targeting the kinds of fish the two of us chase. He told me his name and that he actually works for the Portage lure creator. I showed a myriad of baits that I have made. After a while Gary told me he wanted to fish closer to Portage but wasn’t sure how to get there as he didn’t know where the most water was in the channel. Since I’d been all the way to Portage 10 days ago or so I gave him the directions to get there. Soon he was on his way using my route.

I fished on for more than an hour without moving any fish so I packed up and headed back down river then pulled into Duck Creek. I fished there for a while with no action and headed back toward the landing. On the way I stopped at another good spot and it wasn’t long before I saw Gary motoring his way back to the landing. I fished there for a few minutes with no action and decided to go down river past Hooker’s Resort and try trolling for a while in an area known to hold the kind of fish I was seeking.

I didn’t get any strikes on my first trolling trip up river and decided to go back up river to the previous location. As I approached the landing I chose to pull in and get a snack I’d left in my truck. Gary was still at the landing with his trailer in the water and he was just sort of looking like he was contemplating something. As I pulled my boat up onto the sand and walked away Gary said, “I picked a bad day to forget my boots.”

The water level at the landing forces us to back our vehicles into the water with all four wheels getting wet. That means that one must walk in the water to secure the boat to the trailer, then get to the cab and pull the unit out of the water. I had my boots on and offered to help him out. He was happy to say the least..

I secured his boat after he power loaded it then drove his vehicle ahead and out of the water so he could be on time for the activity he didn’t want to be late for. I then pushed off and headed back up the  river. I got things ino order and decided to use a glide bait that I’d never had a fish attack and hadn’t used in a couple of years. I decided to give it a try and quickly attached the leader snap to the bait then quickly  tossed it into the place my friend had told me a big fish was living. 

On my first cast the bait splashed down and I gave a few tugs to get it working. Slow jerks followed by frantic reeling to take up slack and so on. After about three repetitions of doing that the water erupted above where my glide bait was doing what it was made for. A big fish was on and headed to my right. In the same instant I jerked my rod to set the hooks but the fish gave up my lure but I got back to work instantling and kept bringing the bait back toward me. When the bait was about five feet from the tip of my rod that hungry or angry fish attacked the bait again but again I failed to get it hooked. I emitted a loud scream because I was disgusted with myself for not being able to get that fish caught and in the boat for a picture. It was a missed opportunity. 

I kept tossing that bait back out into that area for another 10 minutes or so before moving on to the next possible spot for a big fish. I switched baits, this time attaching a Mepps Giant Killer with black bucktail and a gold blade with a flashy silver sticker on one side. I tossed that bait a few times and the first time I tossed to my right another large fish attacked it. I don’t think the fish ever had the bait in its mouth though. It was either faking it or just missed. It did not however continue to chase it so perhaps one of those hooks had touched its mouth. I kept using the Mepps though for another half hour or so but had no success. 

I was thinking about going home and calling a trip but on the way I was casting away. As I approached the seam that the musky had been in I decided to put that glide bait back on my line. That’s when I learned the reason for not being able to hook that fish. As I reached into the bait box all I could do was shake my head in disgust at myself. In my anxious anticipation of catching the big fish my friend had told me about and deciding to use the glide bait I hurriedly grabbed it, slid the leader clip through the bait’s split ring and threw it out there. On the first cast the aforementioned excitement took place. Now as I looked at the glide bait I noticed that there were no hooks on it. 

I had been using a plug with no hooks attached!

What would your self-talk be with this discovery? I’m not about to type what my self talk was at that moment. 

I write these stories with several goals in mind. I try to include a bit of education for the readers, some insight into what takes place on the river during my trips, some humor and try to engage you in an attempt to make you think you are actually in the boat with me. 

I am not counting today’s fish as a caught fish. It will be just on my list of fish that were fooled by a fake bait and from now on I will be sure to check for hooks.

My goal was to get some action and put a fish in the net. Perhaps next time thing will turn out differently

Have a great week!

Bob