Maintenance Muskie...
Travis Frank
I'll go ahead and start out with a quick recap of the past few days and its events. While I have been doing my best to keep you updated on what has been happening, I haven't been able to get everything on the world wide web. This past Tuesday marks the first day in over 3 weeeks that I have hit the water without landing a beast. I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment, but it didn't come without a fighting chance. Tuesday morning Tom and I hit the frigid waters early in the morning and had some close calls right off the bat. If it weren't for a broken eye on my rod, and the frayed line it caused, I might still have a very long streak going. However, the line broke upon the strike of the fish, and all I was left with was a sad story of the one that got away. It wasn't surprising to me to only have a couple of chances with the intense cold front that moved in, but all good streaks must come to an end, especially when dealing with muskies.
During our outing on Tuesday, I noticed some issues with my motor. Sometimes these issues aren't the easiest to describe to the mechanics at the dealership, so when Mark at R & R Marine couldn't pinpoint the issue at the dealership, we took it for a test run on the water. Last night we found ourselves in the middle of the lake with the cover off and the computer hooked up to the motor. A few minutes, and our thoughts were confirmed on the issue. Since we knew what needed to be fixed, and we had some time before darkness, we did what any fisherman would do....We Fished! It didn't take long to locate some big fish, and Mark was staring down a giant before he prematurely set the hook. That's fishin I guess, and a leson was learned on the art of muskie fishing. A few minutes later I was the recipient of a picture perfect strike, and we photographed another beauty. While she wasn't huge, (44 inches) she was a great catch nonetheless and it kindof brought my spirits up from the motor troubles. A quick maintenance check turned out to be an alright evening on the water, and Mark and I enjoyed one of those picture perfect fall evenings. If only he could have landed Mr. Piggy! Oh well, I guess there is always next time. And that is what I call, Livin the Dream!