Three Svens

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so if I was Lileks, I'd be half done with the Bleat.

Alas, I am not.

Sven Kirt and I went out on Eagle last night. The SS Valdez is smelling much better, as is the launch at Magda, but the lake is very low. It was a partly cloudy evening with a stiff wind out of the NE, so we decided to fish the North end first.

All along the reeds, no fish. We fought the wind back into the lilypads and I got a very nice 17-18" LMB on a white spinnerbait with a huge Blaze Orange Colorado blade. We saw lots of action, but didn't get any more fish into the boat.

We started up some of the channels to the docks on the North end when SK's line started to "move". I was driving, so I didn't see all of it, but he said it started out to the left, then swerved to the right. I saw the swerve and said, Do you have a fish?

Bam, he set the hook and a huge pile of water and weeds surged out of the channel into the gorp. I think...ping!! woosh...

Dude - that was a musky.

He reeled in the broken end of his leader - the loop had pulled out. Dangit, that was a big fish and it ate a white spinnerbait with a monkey puke Colorado.

While SK reloaded his baitcasting rod, we drifted down the channel out to the main lake and I caught a small pike in a little opening along the way. Once we were all set we motored back up the channel to an opening by the docks. Sven Mark and I caught a half a dozen bass in one night with a similar wind once, so we tried it again.

Nothing. Well, SK had a nice hit on a worm, but didn't get it.

Out a side channel to the main channel with big carp swirling and flopping all around. One little pike was all it held.

We drifted with the wind down Sven John's weed bed, still no fish.

As we continued to drift past the reed beds, I got a strike. A nice one. I had been dragging the white/blaze spinnerbait along with the wind and it was only a few inches down. The big gaping maw with my spinnerbait in the top lip was all we needed to see.

Musky!

It made a few runs and tried to get both under the boat and into the motor. Fortunately the drift we were on held up and I was able to keep her on.

We have no camera... but my phone does. SK got the camera phone up and running, waiting for the big picture.

As I brought her in SK said, You're just going to grab her?
Yeah, she's not that big - probably 36-39". She slid right up to the boat, not much fight left, but we all know better don't we. I checked to see if I could get a good grip on her back and it was no problem.

I set my rod down and started to lift her up. With about 3/4 of the fish out of the water - and no pictures yet - I felt the fish tense and could tell she was going to thrash. I reached for the gill grab with my left hand, hoping to weather the esox storm, but she flared her gills as the thrashing began.



My right thumb slid under the gill plate and I could feel my thumb becoming hamburger. I threw her back, and picked up my rod. The sickest feeling in the boat is the feeling of slack line where there should be a fish.

I have no idea at what point she broke the line (17 lb spiderwire btw) but she was gone.

8:45 pm

The adrenaline rush is starting to fade and my thumb is pulsating to the beat of my heart. SK and I decide to head back in as I castigate myself for all the dumb mistakes I just made. Shoulda given SK the rod, grabbed the gillhold not the back, at the very least, shoulda grabbed the spinnerbait with my left hand right away.

She'll probably throw that hook and be just fine.

Gotta get some more of those spinners...