The Quest, Part 2
Travis Frank
If you stepped outside yesterday, you probably weren't thinking it would be a good day to be on the lake. Of all lakes, Mille Lacs was our choice. The weather man called for some wind, but what we encountered was more than what we bargained for. Bret and his fishing buddy Jordan hopped in the boat on the record quest. These boys were from Wisconsin, and while they love muskie fishing, they quickly admitted that they had never experienced anything like this back home. The waves were simply ridiculous. There's no other way to say it. When Mother Mille Lacs rears her ugly head, she can be down right brutal. The only plus side was that the temps jumped up to around 50 by mid day.
Our morning was rather uneventful - fish wise, but the waves and wind kept us on our toes. In fact, we were jumping around, spot to spot, doing our thing all morning, and didn't even realize that we forgot to eat lunch. It was 2:30 before we even checked the time, and couldn't believe how fast the day had passed us by. I guess when you are fishing with great guys the time just flies by.
I didn't have much to report on this day other than the conditions were favorable and we weren't seeing any muskies. It was somewhat frustrating to watch these two guys hammer away all day to see only Tullibee follow their lures to the boat. In fact, the Tullibees were everywhere and made for an added challenge. Why in the heck would a muskie eat our meager offering when she had several thousand tasty meals swimming around her all day long. It was humbling on my part to get the results we were experiencing, but we knew that it could all change with one cast. Later in the afternoon the wind got the best of me. I had a slight chill and decided to warm up by tossing the abnormally large baits. I didn't want to catch a fish, but rather would accept the results of my casting. After all, my goal was for one of the boys to get bit. Not me. For some reason the fish decided they liked my offering, even though it was exactly the same as Bret's. I had a follow shortly before dark. At that point it was our only muskie sighting of the day. As darkness fell, we continued to pound the waters to a froth. Just when we thought it wasn't going to happen, I received a throttling, and as I set the hook, the abnormally fat muskie went airborne. "I got him," was all I could muster as I tried to tame the beast. Seconds later we struggled to net the fish as it got caught up on the outside of the netting. It was actually kind of comical to watch, but luckily we got her in. She wasn't a state record, but dang are they fat right now. I guess that's a reminder as to why we put ourselves through such misery on the water. It's all for the love of fall fatties! The quest will continue tomorrow, so until that state record strikes, keep on livin' the dream!