This is a tale of my embarrassment after losing a Muskie for my grandson when we were in Canada fishing for Muskellunge, Northern Pike, Walleye, Crappie and Smallmouth.
Dustin was about 10 years old when I took him and his brother, Kevin, to Lake of the Woods in Ontario Canada. My brother, Max, and I had a cabin booked at Miles Bay Camp with ample room for the boys. I was in Rhinelander Wisconsin visiting Max so my daughter brought the boys up from Oak Park, Illinois where they lived. We had a great time on the drive to Morson Canada where we parked the car and took a choppy boat ride the nearly 15 miles to the island camp.
Because neither Max nor I enjoy fishing 4 in a boat, we rented a separate boat and Max and I would take turns guiding Dustin and Kevin. Max took to Dustin and seemed to be protective of him. That was a very pleasant surprise and made for great camaraderie. Typical of that, one day Max had Dustin out fishing Smallmouth. Just off the island they hit a bonanza and had a great afternoon. At dinner that night Max and Dustin regaled Kevin and I with stories of their great Smallmouth adventure. They teased us repeatedly and Dustin told Kevin that he should fish with Uncle Max because Grandpa was an “amateur angler”.
Another afternoon I was guiding Dustin. We had followed Max’s boat into a shallow 100 yard wide trough that ran between two islands. Dustin pointed to a shallow weedy area and suggested we try that. So I motored slowly over to the area. Dustin made a cast into the weeds and, bam, he got a hard strike. The fish ran deeper into the weeds and leapt into the air trying to shake the lure away. “Muskie”, shouted Max, and sure enough when it jumped again I could see it. It was probably only 35-38 inches long and kind of skinny, but it was a Muskie. As Dustin fought him, the fish jumped at least 4 more times.
But, there was a problem. The fish had entangled the 8 pound line in the reeds and lily pads in about 2 feet of water and was hung up close to the bottom. There was no way we were going to get him out with just the rod and reel. The only net we had was a small walleye net and that was worthless. The option of getting out of the boat and wading into this mess was impossible due to the deep mud deposits in the area.
So taking an oar I tried to leverage it to dig the roots of the reeds and lily pads up so Dustin could retrieve them as well as the fish. Of course you can guess what really happened – all that activity scared the fish and with a huge burst of energy he broke the line and swam away, jumping several more times.
The look on Dustin’s face, the sight of the Muskie jumping and the sound of Max saying, “You lost him” was a huge embarrassment. Now 12 years later Dustin still teases me about how I lost his “trophy” Muskie and then reminds me that I owe him a Muskie!
Now
Read about my first Muskie
My dad’s first Muskie
And
Learn more about Miles Bay Camp
