North Woods River Runner: Lessons Learned On The Water

It’s a lake once removed from the one on which we rent a cabin. My Dad had been there on his own before, but on this day we loaded a canoe and two kayaks for him and me, plus three nephews. Throughout the week on the main lake we had been catching some fish; most of them okay to decent by most accounts. But on this newer lake, there was the hope for some pike or muskie, with the prayer that they’d be big. The lake itself isn’t big water, but it’s water. And although it's choked full of weeds across most of it, it apparently retained the necessary habitat that warranted an investigative fishing adventure. It’s a lake that’s bordered by white pines instead of cabins, so it has that going for it as a wild flair.

Myself, Matthew, Max, Rowan, And Dad

After unloading the vessels, and loading up our gear, we split up; going in various directions. I was in one of the solo kayaks and decided to work my way along the shoreline while casting into the soft stemmed bulrush. Eventually I fished my way past an inlet creek to the eastern side of the lake. It was at about that time that I had a big hit on my spinner bait lure; the one with the extra trailer hook that I like. The fish was strong, fought hard, and when I got it up to the side of the kayak I was greeted with the toothy grin of a 30 inch northern pike. In the distance I saw my Dad with Max and Matthew in the canoe down by the outlet, and Rowan in the other kayak was on the shoreline opposite from me. Using my fish gripper, I lifted the fish up behind me and managed to get a selfie with part of it. I elected to keep it, but without a dispatching club, I simply ran the rope stringer through its mouth and tied it onto the side of my kayak. It was so chunky that it kept jerking my kayak around while I continued to fish.

Within several casts after that, I had a huge muskie follow my lure.  It must have been between 40 and 50 inches as it slowly cruised under my kayak, turned, and disappeared down into the weeds.  As I was positioned in my seat down next to the water, it was what you’d classify as up close and personal!  I froze, taking short little breaths, and after a brief wait, cast several times in the direction it had finned away, but to no avail.

     I fished for a while longer and then got another hit from a pike, this one a 25 inch fish.  Rowan, upon seeing me with some action, paddled over to me and took a picture of me holding it up.

On a whim, not usually like me, I decided to keep this pike too. Perhaps in the back of my brain I pictured a family fish fry, since we all enjoy the taste of fish and especially pike. As I untied the first pike I had caught, and started to put the rope through the gills of the 25 inch pike, the 30 incher jerked and ripped the stringer from my hand. Like a shot I saw it spiraling free down into the depths, I plunged my hand down into the water and managed to grab the very end of the yellow nylon rope. With big eyes I looked at Rowan and said, “That was close!” As I began to run it into the gills a second time, both of the pike simultaneously thrashed. In the midst of the sudden turmoil within the close confines of the kayak, the wet stringer slipped from my hands again before I could recover! The last thing I saw was the white bellies of two big pike and the tip of the yellow cord disappearing into the black deep. I said a few frustrated words and sat there dumbfounded; unfortunately more dumb than founded. There was absolutely nothing I could do but mutter to myself and stare at the water. What had just happened? Two prized fish were on a stringer down on the bottom of the lake and out of my sight. I felt sick to my stomach. Feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and frustration flooded over me. What I had done was so stupid. I knew better than to have done what I had just done. I switched out to my Red Eyed spoon lure, with the large treble hook on it, and ran it over and over through the water, hoping against all odds that I’d be able to snag the stringer and bring them back up. All I could think of was the waste. Taking something to eat is one thing. Allowing something to suffer was another. I felt as if I’d been selfish to think that I would need both fish. In the midst of my casting and retrieving, two more muskies followed up to my kayak; somewhere in the 30-40 inch range. They were tauntingly eerie in the way that they slowly cruised past me.

A bit later, when my Dad and the boys paddled up, I recalled the tragedy to them. Literally as I was in the middle of retelling the details of my loss, the two pike and yellow stringer suddenly surfaced a mere 10 feet off my bow, splashed, and dove back down again. I continued casting to snag them and hoped they would repeat their performance, but that would be the last I would see of my stringer of pike. My Dad practically had to pull me off the lake when it was time to quit. I didn’t want to leave! As I helped load the kayaks, I rationalized that the 25 inch pike probably had a chance of pulling off the stringer, but there was no way that the 30 inch would. Either it would stay tangled down in the weeds for a snapping turtle, or somewhere a yellow stringer would soon decorate one of the local eagle nests. A blue ribbon for a prized find. Finders keepers, losers weepers.

The rest of that afternoon I was depressed. I sat on the swing outside of our cabin and talked to my sister for a while. When it rained briefly, I took a 40 minute nap. Afterwards, the family gathered at our cabin for a pork roast we had cooked in a crockpot, I read for a spell, and then we capped off our evening with ice cream in the small town not too far away. It had been a day.

Making The Most Of An Otherwise Difficult Day

The following morning I took a walk down to the public boat launch and back to help clear the cobwebs from my head. I felt like I needed to do something to get out of the funk I was in after the previous day’s disaster. After breakfast, a couple of us went on a morning boat ride with my Mom in the resort’s pontoon raft. While out we saw several eagles roosting in trees along the shoreline. And then together with my parents and niece Maggie, we drove to a coffee shop where my wife was already working on some school work for her Master’s Degree, before we headed out to a cranberry bog and farm. It was a great little trip on back country roads where we talked, saved turtles trying to cross on the blacktop, and munched on some of the packages of dried cranberries that I had purchased.

By lunch time my Dad had had about enough. I think he felt like it was time to get me back in the saddle again and out fishing. Time was a wastin’! With the rest of the family busy with their own activities, we strapped his canoe onto his trailer and headed back over to the smaller lake; the scene of yesterday’s accidental crime.

After launching, we worked our way around the lake, pitching various lures to and fro. Dad worked from the stern and I manned the bow. Between the two of us and the gunwales, in the bottom of the canoe, was my brand new, rubber meshed, landing net. It had a big hoop, extendable handle, and was the very one that Matt Nelson (aka: NDYakAngler) uses on his YouTube channel. It’s nothing more than an Ozark Trail special from Walmart, but I secretly hoped it would help land a big fish!

After working our way from one side of the lake to the other several different times, and drifting in the slight breeze, I had a solid strike between mats of underwater foliage; in what appeared to be a deeper channel. The fish swung our bow around, made a run, and then double backed under the canoe; with the sound of my pole’s tip slapping underneath us as the reel drag whined. My pole was aimed out over the port side of Dad’s olive green, 14 foot Wenonah, but my line and the fish were somewhere over off the starboard. The canoe spun under finned propulsion as Dad tried to guide us with his paddle. Gradually I gained an advantage, saw it was a muskie, and managed to scoop it into my net on one of its numerous passes. It was my third muskie in as many years at that point, but the first in my net. Dad handed me his fish gripper so I could hook it onto its jaw, lift it, and have him take my picture. It was a great scene and a great memory that would now be etched into my brain. Who would know that somewhere in the waters behind that awesome snapshot, two pike were probably tangled in the weeds down below the surface? I extracted the lure, eased the great fish into the cool water, and released the gripper; working its body back and forth until the 39 inch muskie slid off from my fingers. A fish and experience like that helps to ease the pain of a mishap.

For the next half hour or so we continued to fish. Dad caught and released a small pike and I had a trailing pike and muskie; neither of which were interested in actually hitting my lure. We headed to shore, packed up our gear, and drove back along the dusty two track road; smiles etched on our faces.

That evening, with our family gathered around, we had an excellent dinner of tacos before several of us headed out for a sunset pontoon raft ride. We had an osprey and eagle fly overhead and were able to get a great picture of them both. The capstone of the evening, however, was the loon that surfaced as we slowly motored with hardly a ripple. It was only 10-15 feet off the side of us, and actually made its wild tremolo call several times with us right there next to it. It was exhilarating, and each of us found ourselves in awe of the spectacle. It’s a sound that encapsulates the Northwoods.

So too the Northwoods can be an opportunity to catch a big fish. Having a Northwoods experience as I did, surrounded by the actual Northwoods, is memorable. It brings clarity as to what really lurks in the deep. Being blessed with the encounter of a muskie, after such a heavy loss and painful learning experience, is nothing short of a gracious gift. It’s one of the many lessons I’ve learned while out on the water.

See you along The Way…

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