Granny’s favorite line in mid to late October is, “This is my last day. Its getting too cold”. But it’s never true. No doubt, Granny reduces her time on the water but she still finds herself on a few more trips right into the first couple weeks of November. Though it was a brisk 34° during this morning’s breathtaking sunrise, getting outdoors and on the water could not be resisted once it was seen that the thermometer was steadily rising.
Today wasn’t a whole day adventure. Granny and I tended to some chores. I packed for a speaking gig I have in Atlanta next week while Granny is already stashing things for a January Costa Rica trip. But by 11 am it was 45° and the boat was hooked up. By 1 pm, Granny had my Winston 7-weight Air 2 Max doubled over numerous times with above average sized Wisconsin pike. But then she hooked into a fish that was slightly larger and fought twice as hard. Granny had a musky.
Granny was as calm and cool as I’ve ever seen her in hooking a fish. She saw the toothy critter coming. Saw the mouth open and the gills flare. And instead of a panic stricken trout set, she strip set several times until the musky came tight and took off. She laid the wood to the fish and didn’t let him run far. This is key to keeping these big fish from retreating to sunken trees or forests of weeds. She bent my green stick so deep our little boat turned from the force of the fish. And after about a minute, I slipped the net underneath.
I wish I could tell you we had a nice picture, but this is all we got. I hate handling big strong fish in a boat because often they are dropped. Its terrible for the fish and frequently results in a life-threatening injury. Usually we have our waders for such brisk days and we can hop overboard and keep the fish in the water, but today we didn’t. Instead, Granny followed one of my boat rules. You carefully lift the fish from the net and hope the fish behaves for a photo. But if the fish becomes unruly and flops loose, you make damn sure he falls in the water, not in the boat. This guy ended up in the water before our picture and he took off like a lightning bolt. No big deal – Granny nailed a musky like a pro!
Granny landed nine pike and one musky on this early November day. That’s her best day of the year not including some of her all-star performances abroad this year. Two of her pike were slightly larger than this one. This is a 28” pike that we didn’t mind handling in the boat because 28 inchers are ideal for eating.
So was this Granny’s last day of fishing this year? Perhaps. While I’ll definitely fish in GA next week and I’m fishing in Australia most of December, this may well have been my last WI day of the year. We’ll see. One thing for sure is, Granny’s beer tasted awfully delicious as I rowed us up to the boat ramp.
I just closed up my bags for an Atlanta speaking trip I have starting Monday. On Tuesday eve Austin Kane is holding a custom film fest. He’s going to show a film he made in Borneo for the red kaloi and I dug into my archives and will show my Tanzania tigerfish portion of Confluence Films movie, Connect. Then on Wednesday night I’ll deliver “Streamer Tricks for More and Larger Trout” to Atlanta Fly Fishers. That’s all for now. Granny says pike dinner is ready!
I’m going to keep reminding everyone that Christmas is around the corner and I sell gifts for “The Angler that has Everything”. Be sure to visit my webstore and see the new whiskey glasses, my famous coffee mugs, frosted beer steins, sun shirts and hoodies. You can also order my durable vinyl decals from my friends at Pescador on the Fly.