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The Day of all Days

Category: article

 May 18th, 2009 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified May 18th, 2009 at 12:00 AM

I woke up, and looked out the window, and the rain was pouring down. But my mind was set, Im gonna get out on the lake today. The only problem was, my boat is not ready, and I had to rely on my good friend Eivind. What was he thinking about the weather, the forecast had said that it was gonna lighten up later that day, so I kept my fingers crossed.

	50″ Pike

When we spoke on the phone, we both had a good feeling, and let rain be rain, the worst thing that could happen, is that we’d be alittle wet.
We had planned to be on a big fish spot, just before the su overhead, the other solunar factors was way to late or way to early. I picked him up and we looked at the dark skies, and hoped that they would go away, and it looked like the clouds were breaking up. This is gonna be one good day, and we joked about that today a 53 incher would be caught.
 
Two days earlier, I painted one of my prototype lure in a color that I was sure would be a hit amongst the ladies in the lake. Previous experiences, and reports from others, suggested a dark brown to black lure. Im a big fan of flash, so I added some gold scales and glitter. I took the lure out after just one layer of epoxy, and several days before it was ready to fish with, but I was so sure it would deliver the goods. The paint and epoxy, if ruined, didnt matter, I make them, so I can repaint it.

	50″ Release

We arrived at the spot approx 1 hour before sun overhead, alittle late, but now the sun was shining and it was just a plain good day, with a good friend in the boat. We still joked about the 53″er, and I said, “I do have my 50″ goal that I adopted from when I was in Wisconsin, and I had a bet with Steve Worral, about who would catch the others trophy first” He should get a 22lbs(10kg) pike in Wisconsin, and I should get a 50″ pike here.

I fished the area first with a double 8 pink bucktail, blades dont work to well in our lakes, but this particular lake, gave me a few nice ones last year on both spinnerbaits and double 8’s. No, it was time for the Strap on Sally, and it looked even better in the water than I imagined, the water was perfectly staines, so the flash did its mission, I said to my buddy, that this is gonna blow! Not many minutes later, I saw this huge fish follow my lure, “This is big” I said, and was about to kneel down, and start fig 8. I think I got approximately 1% into the 8 and the huge fish became twice as wide, and my bait was gone. “Dont set the hooks right away” I said to myself, and the fish went to the right, WHAM! I nailed the hooks, and the battle was on. The fish went towards the bow, and under the boat, so I buried the deep into the water, to avoid cutting the line on the keel, I had absolutely no control. “Motor up! I think its going around the boat!” and surely, I felt that it was surfacing, a few feet behind the boat, I also had gotten some slack, and reeled like crazy, she was still there, the reel was still halfways under water. She was, by now, on the same side of the boat as me again, and I could fight her in a more normal manner. But she was still not ready to give up, she was surfacing again, and out of the water came this monstrous head, shaking vigrously, my legs were going like 2 sewingmachines. I could not see my bait, so I tried to calm down, because I am not gonna lose this one.

	48″ Pike

Eivind used to be/is a salmon troller, and because they net fish from a moving boat, they always try to scoop the fish. I tried to convince him to put the net in the water, and lift it when the head was in the loop. But he has 10 times more experience in fishing than me, so I wasnt convincing enough. First try he missed, I was nervous again. Second try, he placed the net right smack between the fish’s eyes, and the battle was back on and the sewingmachines re-appeared, but I was still confident in the hooking. 3rd time is a charm, this time he did it my way, net in the water and lift, YEES!! she was in. I grabbed the tools and dove into the net, “This is a new PB” I said. “Lindy Glove please!” 10 seconds later, “We dont have any!” We’ve both forgotten them. The lure was way back in the mouth, and I could have paid top $ for a lindy glove, there and then. “Ok, she is worth a couple of cuts” I thought to myself, followed by another thought: “Hm, I think I can fit my own head inside here”.

	46″ Pike

I got the front treble loose, and had to cut the back one, and could also have paid top $ for a longer knipex, I had to have my hand inside the yap when cutting, I was sure Id wet my pants, but after a while she was loose and I put her back into the net for resting.

We prepared our cameras, meassuring tape and scales. I grabbed her in the net, and started lifting her in, and the fish seemed to never end.
 
Onto the mat, and took the the length, I had the 0 at her lower jaw. Eivind asked me what that goal I was talking about was, 50″ I replied. “Its ‘profanity’ that long!” I profanitied back, are you kidding? No, he was not, I leaned back and saw it with my own eyes, which actually became very wet. I started to laugh, he started to laugh because I was about to cry. He also noted that the battleworn tailfin was missing atleast an inch, which could have made this fish in the 51″ range.

I lifted her and we took the pictures we needed, and I returned her in the water with a kiss on her head, and she swam away after only a few seconds. This was just insane, but the day should actually become crazier!

	45″ Pike

I was totally out after the ordeal, but Eivind fished on, a mere 30 minutes later, he yelled for the net. And after a good fight, another huge fish was in the net, and we laughed like young schoolgirls. This time the fish was 46″. How can we top this? Easy, fish on, and we netted a 45″ and later helped another buddy, who arrived after the reports of the first ones, with a 48″ pike.

The first 2 fish we got, was caught 15 minutes before and after sun overhead. The last 2 were caught only a few minutes after the wind picked up and/the sky clouded up. We had action throughout the whole day with hungry males, and smaller females, and it will for sure go down in the books as the best day on the water, for both of us.

	46″ Release

And that 53″er was actually caught a few days later, by a 13 year old flyfisher…