We stopped by their house, then went on into town to get our one-day fishing license ($25 each), and met them down at the dock. They had already made a few trips with loads of stuff, but we quickly finished loading and got underway.
It wasn't too long before Collins made his first, and only, catch of the day, a clump of clams.
He used a red lure all day and never caught another fish. We tried to talk him into using our $1 minnows, (4 dozen, $48), but he remained stubborn and fishless. Mike took us past the front of George Tackaberry's cottage that we had stopped by last week.
Then we got serious about fishing. Mazie got the first bite, but didn't land it. But then she got another bite, and this time she got it in the boat, so she also got the first fish, a catfish (those things apparently are in every lake in every state!).
But then things improved. I caught the next one, a smallmouth bass.
Then Mazie again.
Then me.
Then Mazie, a perch this time.
We had really got on a little hot spot here, and were catching them right and left, as long as Mike kept us in the right depth of water. I got too busy to keep taking pictures. And Joe had hit a slow spell, but he got back in the game when we returned to this spot later. However, then Joe had to pee, which he was willing to go over the side, but Mike also had the urge, so we left our hotspot and headed in to a cottage of their friends, with an outside toilet. We all got out and walked around a little, then it was back in the boat, to another fishing spot. Mike knew a spot where they had done some icefishing, so he stopped there. And I caught the fish of the day. A 30 inch Northern Pike -- how exciting that was!!!
For some reason, we moved on down the lake to another spot that Sharon knew about, and Joe caught the next fish.
Somehow, it didn't quite measure up to my big Pike! We didn't have any more luck there, so I suggested we go back to our earlier "hot spot" and we got on fish again. Joe and I both caught one at the same time, perch. Mine was bigger but apparently I didn't have the right angle because the photo makes his look bigger.
Twice, Mazie, Joe and I were catching fish at the same time. Now that's fishing!
Joe thought his last fish of the day was giving birth when he caught it because he found this little baby minnow in front of him, but he later decided the fish he caught must have eaten it and spit it with the hook.
We finally called it a day, although Mazie and I could have stayed hours longer. Mike had driven us from point to point all day long, and Sharon had fixed and served us lunch on board -- as Mazie said, we were treated like royalty. In total, we probably caught between 25 and 30 fish, several different species. But we headed back to the dock, unloaded the boat, then went to Sharon and Mike's for dinner. Sharon had put a stuffed turkey in the oven that morning (have to look for these in the states when we get home), so we walked in to wonderful smells of a turkey dinner. She added all the fixings -- mashed potatoes, corn, cranberries, cole slaw, and raisin and key lime pie. We polished that off in short order -- we were all starved. Marilyn had gotten back from taking her mother to the doctor, and Sylvia stopped by our "campground" and picked up David (who did laundry instead of going fishing with us), so Sharon had 9 to feed. Her dinner was wonderful, and she had 9 very clean plates to wash.
We had a nice visit, another friend of theirs stopped by and added to the jocularity, so it was a fun evening, but everyone was tired, so we went our separate ways about 8:45. The weather was beautiful today, it dropped into the 50s last night, and warmed up to the 70s -- a perfect day on the lake. I will remember this day for a while though, because that Northern Pike was some CATCH!
No comments:
Post a Comment