~THE ONE THAT DIDN'T GET AWAY~

We spent a week at Lost land Lake in Wisconsin last week. The weather was good and we caught all the panfish we could eat! I think one of the most exciting days had to be when EM hooked this 34 inch 15 pound Northern PIKE!  Grandpa with the help of my brother Mark actually landed it...but my was it exciting!

 

EM had gone out fishing for panfish (mainly bluegill and perch) with Grandpa, Uncle Mark and me. We had been having good luck on a weedbed and went back there. EM's line had been all tangled so Grandpa had just spent time straightening it all out. He had been stuck on the weeks several times and said he thought he was again. I pulled on the line and realized he had a fish and said keep reeling. He said he thought he was stuck again. Dad pulled on the line and said "no it is a fish". About that time the northern jumped out of the water and we saw it was indeed a FISH!! Dad took the 3 foot Scooby-Doo pole that EM was fishing with and started working it in. That was when we realized we had no net in the boat...after all we were just fishing for panfish. I pulled up the anchor and we watched the show. Eventually the fish got tired and my brother found some fishing gloves and tried to pick it up. After the 3rd attempt at that he realized he was going to need to pick it up in the gills. So the 4th time he got both hands into the gills and in the boat it came! We put it in the livewell and headed back to camp.

I ran for a scale and sent Scott for the camera. After capturing this "fish story" with a few pictures they released it. At first it went belly up, but thankfully they were able to keep it moving and it took off back to the deeper water where hopefully it will live a long life!

EM thought that was fun and the next day thought he would catch a "big One" again! My dad told him in his 60+ years of fishing that was the largest fish he had landed...but I don't think EM really understood what an unusual moment that was!

The girls caught fish as well. MR really liked the bluegill and perch and SJ caught a couple bass..so that was fun too