Ada Boy Phillip...
Travis Frank
Last night I was joined on the water by a man that has a true passion for the big fish. Phillip is not his name, but that's what we call him. Not sure why, but that is neither here, nor there. Anyways, the story goes something like this. 648 phone calls and 2017 text messages, and I finally agreed to show him a few things on the water. It's a funny joke between myself and a few others, but this guy is as determined as anybody that I have ever met. Jokingly, I finally gave in to his requests and agreed to go fishing. Last night was the night.
We started by fishing for bass and pike. I have a trip upcoming and needed to hone my skills for the non-muskellunge creatures. 
After a short stint, I found what I needed and moved on to the big guys. I hadn't fished muskies for a few days, because I was out of town, but went to some previous hot spots from the week prior. This turned out to be a good choice. The first spot took about 3 casts to reveal the first fish. This low forty incher must have spooked 'ol Phillip, because he left several feet of line out on his figure 8 and the fish was not impressed. Two casts later another fish turned his offering down boatside. I laughed and tossed a good throw back option to the hopeful fish. Well, it ate, but then let go almost as fast as it grabbed hold. Bummer!
As we left that location and on to number two, I could feel nothing but excitement. The previous trip showed a ton of fish piled in the area. As we pulled up to that spot, Phillip was telling me about his sweet new rod combo. I laughed, but he was in love with it. I told him to get ready. About 3 casts into it I had the first fish come boatside. Not a taker, but verified my thoughts. Two casts later and another, then another. Phillip was as giddy as a 5th grader on the last day of school. Finally it was his turn, which is where things got interesting. His new lure and rod were about to be tested. Upon the strike, he set the hook and I watched the his new rod shatter into 3 pieces. Not that it was a funny situation, but all I could do was laugh. It just shouldn't happen that way! Needless to say, the fish came unhooked during the whole ordeal, and left Phillip as one unhappy fisherman.
From that point on, it was almost out of control. We fished for another 45 minutes and saw too many fish to count. I was working my new favorite baits and I had them going crazy on it. At one point I think I raised 9 muskies in less than 20 casts. For some reason I couldn't get them hooked, but the action was great. In that short 45 minute time period before we left the lake we saw in the neighborhood of 20 fish. Phillip finally connected with a dandy 49 incher on the figure 8. This was his first fish on the figure 8, and it was a good one. About 4 casts after that, I too connected. Not a giant, but another boatside battle. Those low forty inchers can just go wild, and this one did exactly that. It went airborne 3 times before I could get it away from the boat. I think Phillip was too shooken up from the excitement to hold the camera steady for the picture. Oh well, I say sweetness sums up the entire evening. A great night on the water that I'm sure neither one of us will soon forget. Until the next fish strikes, keep on livin' the dream!
It has been brought to my attention that I have given Phillip a hard time in the writing of this article. I apologize for that. I want everyone to know that Phillip and I are good friends and that I am not trying to do anything but have a good time with him. If you can't joke with your friends, then who can you joke with? Anyway, I have great respect for him and his fishing skills, but I also like to joke and have fun at the same time. Everything that I wrote about were personal jokes that we have had over the last several months, which is why I put them in the writing. I'm sorry if I came across in a bad way with his article. Congrats again on the great fish and thanks for the great evening!