‘Almost Dashed Against the Rocks’, and ‘The Big One That Got Away’

Day eight—A last hurrah: out fishin’ on Upper Goose Lake!

14 July 2011: Dad & I woke a little later & moved a little slower on our last fishing day. One might think it would be the reverse—I certainly did. I’d figured I’d get us out onto the lake early, raring to go, desperate to take in the last hours here. Instead, I was just thrilled to take my time, to be with my dad, chat & go out onto the lake again on another sunny, warm morning with not too much wind.

When we did get into gear, we motored out towards the hump but saw someone was there & decided we’d prefer to enjoy being on our own—what has been most exciting about this week is in fact that it is like we are almost entirely alone out on these lakes & rivers.

We rarely saw other boats anywhere, & so there was a great sense of really being able to get away from the world of humans of getting closer to nature—the lake, the trees, the wonderful array of lakeshores, riverbanks, weedbeds, pines & firs climbing off the water atop sharp-angled hills or drop-off rock shorelines. Along some shores we could see so many layers of plant growth, from lichen & mosses to small brush, little trees then always & everywhere pines/firs shooting into the sky.
As if they were in the same mood as us, it was a quieter fishing day—where we either caught small or largish fish, but nothing in between.
ALMOST DASHED AGAINST THE ROCKS ON OUR LAST DAILY DOUBLE:

One of our last day highlights was our daily double—we often had a few per day in fact—but really our best & most dynamic & dangerous one is the one which netted this duo of fish pictured here (below). We had been tossing about along some shorelines & staying put, we noted, was out of the question, so we decided to cast around some islands for Northern.

We would often pull the boat up one shore of an island then let the forceful winds just rush us along the shore—dad would use the motor only as a means to hold us steadier & too slow the speed at which the winds buffeted us along. As we came up to a rocky point we both had cast out off the same side of the boat—towards shore—when suddenly we both hooked fish, & not tiny fish either.

We both needed the net & someone to perhaps to net the fish as we tried to keep our fish from getting near each other or getting our lines tied up—all this as the boat was being thrust at great speeds towards the rocky shore at this island’s point. In time, with the waves rocking us at a nice clip, half the time standing, half re-sitting down in the boat looking down at our fish, trying not to break our lines & lose them, Dad managed to get his fish close to the boat, hold it there without having his line snap, steer & alter the motor direction so as to push us away from the rocks we were dangerously close to being dashed against. All the while, he managed to not tangle his fish & line up with mine!

Then, adrift at quick speeds because of the waves & wind, we pushed off past the island heading out into open waters (which was safe) & got our fish into the boat. I took this pic above of dad holding them both up—my 23 inch walleye & his 27 inch northern. Both nice fish who had fought well.

An exciting double on many levels. Both fish were too big to be keepers, so again we let them go & they vanished quckly under the water swimming away. I wondered whether they were surprised to find they were so far from their original island, or whether fish even knew these things!

& then the dry spell—well, for us. We coast along casting into other shores of the same island we had been going round. We came to the space where the island completely blocked the wind &, since we weren't having any luck then, we just bobbed contentedly, neither of us really fishing. There we ate our sandwiches & drank our beer & marveled at our surroundings.

As we did not intend to catch more fish to eat on this, our last afternoon fishing, we tried out some new spots to see how that went, then, before heading in, we decided to return to hog hollow where we had been on our fish day out.

It was growing close to our 4pm limit (we needed to get the boat in earlier so it could be emptied & cleaned). Failing to catch much, we decided to go back for a last hurrah along the hump. There, despite a little wind (the winds had died down) we found the same backtrolling boat that had been there it seemed every time we’d passed by these past days.

We anchored just as a series of other boats seemed to be heading for this spot, too. A few newcomers had gotten into camp a day early. Since everyone knew this spot, they were all heading out here for a first fish. It was almost comic—4 boats backtrolling while we hung out anchored most of the time. I kept wondering how none of them ran into each other. I think we were looking at more boats than we had encountered all week! We could all watch others catch fish, & everyone did, but it remained a quieter afternoon than other days we had been there (which in fact explained the presence of so many fishermen in one spot, too).

THE BIG ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Dad caught a last northern (pictured below here) which I thought would be our last fish of the trip when I suddenly hooked one. I said “I’ve got a fish,” with a bit of surprise. “Is it a big one? You need the net?” Dad asked. I felt the fish wiggle & knew it must be small—perhaps not "bait" size, but not worth netting. “No, it’s a small one,” I said with confidence. I felt the fish’s sleight weight on my line as I reeled in, pulled it up feeling its feeble resistence, reeled again. “It’s a little one," I repeated, "it’s tiny, tiiinnny,” I kept saying, a bit giddy with my last cast catch & also just feeling playful about the smallness of the jiggling fish I was about to haul in.
Then all of a sudden I felt like I had a boulder on the other end of my line. I stood up to peer into the water as I pulled & reeled, keeping the line taught, a bit perplexed but carefully luring the fish upward so as to get it into the boat. It was no longer jiggling, but holding hard & solid. I thought perhaps I had just misjudged it. I knew the fish could not be far from the surface by this point, so I looked down into the water, squinting against the sun’s reflective glare. Just before the fish turned & took out drag—not something a tiny fish would do or even be able to do—I saw the head of AN ENORMOUS FISH near my line. “Oh!” I exclaimed changing my tune, “It’s huge! “It’s huuuge!” I was still convinced that I had a walleye, & if that was the case the form I had just seen part of turning & yanking out drag was going to be my whale.

My heart thudded & I thought, “Can I get this in? On my 8 pound line?” After all, I had broken the reel on my 15 lb line the day before, so to get this size of a fish in on this line would mean being very very careful not to engage in any sort of a tug of war with it at all—it would certainly win, snapping the line in a second.

My dad was also now standing & we were both looking towards where my pole had been arched almost into the water when the fish—both of them—came up next to the boat. I had indeed caught a small walleye, something around 12-13 inches, but the largest northern I’d seen this trip was holding onto it for dear life! The northern had my fish horizontally in its mouth &, as he surfaced, ripping at my poor little fish who I had on the hook, I basically could tug on the pole & line & thus pull them both round the front & side of the boat to look at them.

I knew the big northern was not hooked, & it did not even occur to me that dad was going to try & net it like that, so it was already pretty much too late by the time I had heard my dad say “bring it over here! Over this way!”— I realized what he wanted me to try to do, get it to his net, & turned the northern back to pull him towards my dad & then, it seemed, the massive fish saw something—the glint of the net’s metal frame? The dark shadow of one of the net’s ropy loops? Or even dad & I staring amazed down at the unexpected catch in progress? Or me, actually laughing at the ridiculousness of it? & then it was gone—& my little fish practically came flying out of the water into the air as it was released. It had huge teeth marks along its ribcage from where the northern had attacked, & as I unhooked it to let it go, I said “Well, little fish, I think I just saved you from a nasty northern death!” (it would survive—the teeth marks perhaps hurt & would maybe scar if fish scar but certainly it would heal)

Dad & I laughed & dad said “Let’s go home—I think that was a good one to end on” & I agreed. It was the fish that got away—but one we enjoyed even getting to see.
Eric met us at the beach & helped us get the boat up before he headed back to where he was spray-cleaning out other departing party’s boats. We unloaded our 2 tackle boxes, life vests, 4 poles, lake map, minnow bucket, duffle with rain gear & various other weather materials (sun block, bug spray, empty cans, etc) & tiny cooler. Dad then also brought up to the cabin his depth finder & trolling motor. The fishing was over—
As we packed up & prepared for our flight & road trip home, Dad fried up some little fish cakes—again another masterful “easy gourmet” recipe—bread & walleye fillets cubed, egg, spices, fried then eaten with a tartar sauce mixed with a couple drops of tobasco sauce for fun spiciness.

A lovely appetizer before our last dinner—which we ate outside of our cabin on the little picnic table there, accross from the bird-squirrel-chipmunk feeder (thus this pic of one of the baby squirrels--who are getting bigger by the day!). We said our farewells to some of the other campers we had come in with & who were staying on a second week & got in a few photos before another lovely sunset. Mostly packed & the cabin mostly cleaned, we had a last game of rummikub too (& dad won again! Argh!) It was then early to bed—as in the morning, we would have to rise at 4:45 for the long trip home.