Friday 3 August 2007

25th July, Raven Camp, SK

The weather was a bit crappy today but after getting walleye the other night, Steve, Leo and I decided we should go fishing in the boat. I am glad we did! Only 150m from the boat ramp, as the lake narrows, a fast flowing river works it’s way into the lake. First cast and Horn got a 5lb walleye. Ecstatic! Yes. Not long after I got a slightly smaller one. It was “Tron” – meaning awesome! It become quiet and we caught a few pike so we decided to push to the previous walleye ground. Just before we did, I caught the smallest pike imaginable. Not a good sign, but still happy with our walleye. At the T-junction in the lake, we casted away towards an old tree. No one but us were on the water. Leo had something one, but it broke off. Probably a pike. We took our wire leaders off as the walleye get spooked by the swivel and wire. It’s a catch 22 because if you get a pike it will you off. I casted in straight away and bang. I was on. This thing had some weight and was going for stellar runs to 20m. Horn and Steve thought I was playing with a mid sized pike. Calls of “Stop fooling around” and “Just get it done” were hurled my way. All I could do was laugh and play the fish. I knew I was onto a ripper. Well, when this pike finally surface with it’s head, teeth and jet black eye come out, they knew why I was laughing and playing this thing hard. It was a monster and was scene reminiscent of Jaws. It come to the boat a few times but wasn’t keen. I handed Horn my camera and we recorded some video. The fish come in close and I struggled putting my hand around the back of it’s head. It bucked and took off. I worked back towards Steve (the dead set legend) and he skillfully clasped the pike and brought it into the boat. “This is how you do it boys!!!” This thing was around 20 lbs and I could’ve put my fist in it’s mouth and not touch the sides. I personally couldn’t stop laughing as I was amazed we had it in the boat. A few happy snaps and then we nursed it back into the water, set for another day. What a great fish!! Even better – barbless treble and no wire leader. The sun was shining on me.
On a high, we down the lake to a bend, close to the lodge and pinged our lures in. Walleye, a keeper, then another and another. We cracked some tins, Leo’s fell and burst, so he didn’t waste any and shot gunned it. I got my second biggest pike, which was a baby in comparison, maybe 10lbs. Good company, big fish, lots of walleye and then a bald eagle circled around us and perched itself in a tree 100m away. After about 20 walleye for the evening and all of having some walleye action, something strange occurred. Every cast for about 5 minutes, Leo and I hit walleye. Cast, walleye, cast, walleye! It was some of the best fishing I have ever had. We kept about 14 for the people at camp to eat. In the boat on the way home, we were just buzzing.
Back at camp, Mike come in and saw us filleting our booty. He was keen to try some super fresh walleye and cooked up 6 fillets in garlic butter. Two big bags of fillets, some memories that will last forever and feed of walleye. What a day!!

At 12:30am, I skyped Tan which made it even better and showed her the video of the fish. She was wrapped too! An unbeatable day.

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