Unprepared

2013 trout season was a major bust for me due to lack of mobility.  I had my worst big trout year of my life.  I attributed it to my bad left knee and back.  I decided that 2014 was not going to be that way.  I pestered my doctor and had back fusion surgery done on December 03, 2013.  I also have left knee surgery scheduled in early 2014.  I wanted to be ready for 2014 trout.

Late December came and my back was feeling better and I had the itch to fish.  My wife Barb tried to dissuade me from going down to the dam in Gays Mills.  She told me the snow was too deep and I might hurt my back or knee.  Me being the pigheaded person I am I did not listen.  Off we went to Gays Mills.

We parked at the west side of the river by the wall side.  The wall stood about 4.5 feet above the water and had some benches to sit on.  The only problems were that no one had been down there for 2 months and the benches had snow on them, and the wall was covered with 14 inches of snow.

My wife Barb went down the steep hill first and blazed a trail with the gear.  She leaned the net and rod against the bench and went back and retrieved the ultra-long handled net and placed it where I instructed her to.  She then went up the bank and slowly walked down the bank with me behind her.  She thought if I fell, she could at least catch me before I ended up in the water.

We made it down the bank safe and sound.  She had stomped down the snow so I had a good casting area.  I hooked on my silver little cleo and assessed the situation.  The year before I had a behemoth pike cruising through the carp that school there make an appearance for me with a small carp in its mouth.  The memory was quite fresh in my mind.  The carp were schooled there just like the year before.  I smiled and let my first cast fly. No takers on first and second cast.  Then it happened. 

I hooked something on the third cast.  Sometimes when you cast along the carp you end up snagging a carp and this is what I thought I felt.  It was little and coming right in to shore without much effort.  It didn't fight much at all and came in straight so I then decided it was a small pike.

The fish had not surfaced and came in straight away.  My wife handed me my net and I one handed the rod with a short amount of line out and put the long-handled net in the water.  The handle was fully extended and the giant net waited for the fish. My wife had never seen me do this before and she was watching really closely.  She was standing to the left of me and peering over the edge of the wall to see what I had hooked. The fish came to the surface with little effort directly alongside my net.  My wife shrieked "Oh My God!" when she saw what surfaced.  It was that gigantic pike from the season before.  All hell broke loose then.

All I can figure is the pike did not realize it was hooked and came to shore because it was hunting for a small carp to eat.  When it saw the net, it went insane.  I was unprepared and not at full strength and caught with my pants down with the rod in one hand and the net in the other.

The biggest pike I had ever seen in my lifetime was on the end of my line with 3 feet of line out and it was freaking out.  It was not tired because of coming in without a battle so it stood up on its tail and made a mighty head shake and threw the lure.  I was standing there with my rod in one hand and the net in the other and a stunned look on my face. As we walked back up the bank my wife said something that made me laugh:  "Remind me to never wade in the Kickapoo ever again."  It brought a smile to my face but I was frowning inside because I was not prepared for the battle.  Next year I will be.

For more of Len’s work visit; https://lenharris.blogspot.com, Small Streams Trout Monsters Club, or www.facebook.com/len.harris