Muskie number five.
Wisconsin, when a 36-inch muskie decided it looked pretty tasty. When he yanked his foot out of the water the muskie let go and fell into Dan’s canoe. According to Randy Rosslin, a local park warden, Droessler and the fish
both went to the emergency room where he (not the fish) received 60 stitches. Rosslin took possession of the muskie, explaining, “It’s not a legal size for one thing, and it’s not a legal way to catch fish—with your foot.” Droessler wasn’t charged for illegal fishing but failed to see any humor in the ordeal. “I don’t think it’s funny at all,” he later told the Wisconsin State Journal. Muskie experts, both fishermen and biologists, agree that when one
considers the amount of time humans and muskies share the same water, such attacks are very rare. One report even points out that being chomped by a muskie is even less common, and certainly less consequential, than being struck by lightning. Maybe so. However, I think dragging an angry 30-pound lightning bolt across my lap in a fishing kayak might be bringing up the otherwise low chances.
• • • P
addling the Lake Travers to McManus Lake section of the Petawawa River typically fills the better part of three days paddling and two nights
camping. To fish this stretch of river in the same length of time we were constantly on the move, trolling mostly with our rods stuffed in the holders. We were paddling at what we hoped was the speed that would entice lurk- ing muskellunge to ambush our trailing lures. It was close to freezing during the nights and in the mornings we danced
around steaming coffee mugs, trying to avoid crawling into our drysuits. Being so late in the fall, dawn didn’t arrive until aſter seven, so we weren’t on the water until mid-morning. We needed to make time to reach our campsites before dark. Te Algonquin Park map told me we were just below Little Tompson
Rapids and my Lowrance sonar indicated that I was in about 15 feet of water but that I had just passed a grassy shoal that rose to only four feet below the surface. Te edges of the river were filled with grasses and lily pads growing out
toward the centre. Te water was dark and cold. It had started raining, again. When my rod bent double and my reel began dumping line I swore out
loud for no one to hear. Everyone else was almost out of sight in the misty fog downstream. Te kayak spun backward like it had dozens of times yesterday each time I’d hooked a rocky shoal, reed bed or sunken log. Too lazy to paddle back upriver I tightened my drag, hauled on the 25-pound line and pulled against the snag, dragging my fully loaded kayak against the sleepy current. When the line was taut directly below me, my colour LCD screen
indicated 10 feet of water—I knew my blue floating J-11 Rapala must have missed the shoal and hooked a submerged tree instead. I slowly dragged the log to the surface, reeling in the slack I created with each haul. Frustrated by being leſt behind, I glanced downstream and didn’t notice the log coming to the surface. Six inches from my leg was my Rapala, snagged inside a mouth full of
daggers, and one dark, spooky eye. “JESUS…” My startled yell set him off and he went deep below the boat. My rod bent
completely around under the boat, and the same tension on my reel that I used to drag the kayak upstream was now spooling off line like dental floss in the hands of a bloodthirsty hygienist. I kept trying to get my rod on the same side as the fish, but no sooner would I get it around the bow than he’d change direction below me and spin the boat again. “FISH ON!” I screamed into the fog. Now completely spooked, the muskie wasn’t at all interested in getting
near the surface or my mango kayak. I finally tightened the drag a few more clicks and was able to put line back on the reel and slowly bring him to the edge of the boat.
www.kayakanglermag.com… 31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52