Life's Funny That Way

Hook-sets Are Free

As my loving boyfriend is so fond of saying when I fish with him, “Hook-sets are free!!”  My reaction time, however, is not always the best.  Ah well.  I haven’t fished in years, but for the last few have started bass fishing again, and it is my other love, right next to writing. 

Yes, there have been many times, as I am relearning the sport, where I set the hook too late, or not at all while watching another fisherman reel in a Pig…  I wish I could tell just one story of “the one that got away.”  Actually, there are several that come to mind.  LOL.  So, I will talk about the one that would have been a great story if I actually got the fish to the boat.  I was fishing with an inch and a half Crappie swimbait on Pool 4 of the Mississippi River.  It was early spring and the water was quite high.  I’m using a medium-action spinning rod and eight pound test mono.  We’re fishing along this shoreline, which, at other times of the year would be the middle of the woods. There should be some bass up in here.

I feel like I’m hooked on a log at first.  But then, the log moves.  At first I thought that it was one of the big Carp that I’d seen lurking in the shallows.  In northern Wisconsin, we don’t have Carp – which is good, if you ask me.  They are just ugly, junk fish… but I digress.  This fish is going to take me for a ride.  The line starts screaming off the reel.  I let him go for a while, losing and gaining line as we went.  Finally, my mystery fish was near the boat.  He dove under the boat once.  He took me from one side to the other.  Finally, I think I’m going to get him in. 

The whole time I’m screaming, “Get the net!  Get the net!”  The fish decides to come close enough for me to see him (and, yes, it was completely his decision) and then takes a hard right, pulling me to the other side of the boat.

“Where the heck are we going?” I ask the fish… Looking back, I’m not sure why I was attempting to reason with him.

“That,” my boyfriend started, seeing the fish before I did, “is going wherever he wants!”  He ran to the front of the boat in an attempt to chase it with the trolling motor until it got tired enough that we could get it into the boat.

“Holy…” was all I got out of my mouth as the 40+ inch Musky came up, laid on his side near the top of the water, flapped his tail…. And was gone.  I was heart-broken at first.  Even if it was a “non-targeted” species, it would have been great to get that monster in on my light tackle and line.

Yes, hook-sets are free… but the battle of a lifetime is priceless!


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