The following night had brought a drastic change in the weather.
Cold, windy and rainy that morning Slammer and I headed out early.
We were running crank baits along the flats by the Peshekee River on the northeast
end of the lake and had pulled out two walleye in the 17 inch range by
8am. My father had come up the night before to join us for a few days
of fishing. He like to go after pike and had just called me on the radio to
announce he had his 3rd one in the boat already and it went 38 inches!
We had a bet for big fish that day and he was sure he had me now.
I had some nice eating walleye in the boat but they would no way out
weigh his pike. Just then, while passing the point at
N46° 31.695', W88° 00.973', My port side rod jumped and the reel
was running out line. I was using 6 pound line and a crawler harness
so I kept the drag light, set the hook and hung on. After about 15 minutes
a huge mouth finally surfaced and then the tail fin some distance back.
The rainbow was right on cue!
I had a very nice northern on the line, I loosened the drag a little
and let him tire a bit longer before trying to bring him in.
After a few more minutes I had him on the surface about 10 feet behind
the boat so I turned the trolling motor 180 degrees. As the boat broad sided
the fish I took up the slack, slid the net under him and into the boat he came.
Dad would have to do a little better now as I topped his 38 at 40.
After the photo back in the water he went and like a bullet he was gone.
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