As Mike looked back over his shoulder at the other four traps that were in the water, he noticed another flag waving in the air. “FLAG!” he screamed, as he proceeded to run for the trap.
“Wait for me, this one is mine” I yelled, and threw the already frozen trap back in the hole without bait. As we approached the hole, I could tell there was another fish on. With the spool slowly turning and the line out to the side, I knew something was down there chewing on my smelt. I knelt down by the trap and proceeded to set the hook and fight the fish just like I had told Mike to do only minutes before. “It feels like a decent one,” I said to Mike, but I knew it was nothing to brag about. Moments later, after a quick fight, I pulled a 16 inch splake up onto the ice. “Shoot, its gut-hooked and bleeding badly” I said. “I should probably keep this one. He won’t make it if I throw him back.” Normally I would have just cut the line, but when a fish is bleeding that badly, I don’t like to chance having it go to waste.
For the next several minutes, Mike and I proceeded to set the last five traps. While having several flags in the process of re-baiting, and re-setting traps, we managed to catch six more average sized splake and eat a little breakfast. Deer sausage and fried eggs were on the menu that morning. “That smells freaking’ incredible” Mike said as four sausage patties sizzled in a fry pan on my Coleman stove.
“Two Sausage egg and cheese on English muffins for you and two for me” I said as we quickly stuffed our faces like we hadn’t seen food in days.
“This sure is good. You can’t beat this!” I said. “Good food and lot’s of fish is as good as it gets.” “Darn right Buddy, all we are going to need after this is a good pinch of chewing tobacco!” Mike said.
With that said Mike looked out at the traps and noticed the closest flag to us was up. Stuffing the remainder of our breakfast in our mouths, I ran along side Mike to the trap that was to be mine. “It’s taking line,” I said.
“Joe, you take this one” Mike said. Without much convincing on his part, I did. I pulled the trap, set the hook and hollered.
“Man, this thing is huge Mike.” The fish felt really heavy with very little head shaking. I knew this was a big fish. “He’s coming straight for the hole” I yelled. “Get ready!”, but the fish had something else in mind. He swam past me, the hole, and then finally Mike, down the shore of the lake headed for deeper water. “I don’t know what the heck this thing is, but it sure is bigger than anything we’ve caught so far. “If this is a splake, it is a monster” I yelled.
“Take your time and get this thing up on the ice” Mike said, but I didn’t laugh this time. The mood was very serious. Again I turned the fish and he swam straight for the hole again. “He’s coming,” I said, but the fish had something else in mind once again. We played this game for nearly fifteen minutes. Soon, he began to tire. As he slowly swam past the hole once again, I could see the long deep face of a large male salmon with a hook jaw that most fishermen dream about.
“It’s a salmon Mike!” I yelled and quickly developed a nervous shake after seeing the size of this monster. “It must be eight pounds” as Mike stood silent waiting for me to pull the beast from the water. With one arm, gloves and all, I dropped to my knees and drove my arm down the ice hole in the chilling water easing the head of the fish into the hole. As the deep body slowly approached the daylight above, I slid my arm deeper in the water around the fish’s body and gently pulled the fish up the hole while gently pulling the line with my other hand. In seconds, the nicest salmon of my life to date laid in front of me on the ice. “It is huge”, I yelled, as Mike and I stared down at the fish in complete amazement. Its long 28 inch body, large hooked jaw, and dark bronze color made this fish the prettiest fish I’ve ever seen.
Amongst the shaking and excitement, I peered out of the corner of my eye and noticed yet another flag was up nearly 50 feet away.
“This one is yours Mike, your turn to catch one like this”, I said, and slowly set down my big salmon several feet away from the hole.
Mike ran to the trap and nearly slid past it on the bare ice below our feet. As I followed behind and Mike gathered his feet underneath him once again, I could see the trap vibrate in the hole as the spool spun erratically. “Let him run a little”, I said as I approached the hole. Shortly, the spool slowed to a stop and Mike pulled the trap from the water. “Give it to him” I said, as Mike tentatively grabbed the line and began to slowly pull placing tension on the line. “It feels really heavy” he said as he steadily pulled line through his fingers onto the ice. Mike worked that fish like a champ being ever so delicate with the fish in order to prevent a break-off. “He is real close” I said, as the swivel made its way into the hole.
“He’s ready, here he comes… it’s a salmon”, I said, and in a matter of seconds the head of the fish appeared below the hole and I had it in my hands. As I pulled the fish from the water, the size of the fish became much more apparent.
“Yeah!” Mike yelled, as a slender 26 inch female salmon lay on the ice by our feet.
“Congratulations on your first salmon Mikey”, I said shaking his hand amongst all the excitement. A sense of overwhelming pride and enjoyment flowed through my body seeing Mike proud as a peac**k standing over that fish in admiration.
“It’s as big as yours” he said, proudly. “Wow and we thought this day couldn’t get any better”.
“It just did”, I said, “FLAG!”
Now with two 26inch+ salmon on the ice, we ran again like kids to the next flying flag. Like before, the reel was turning and Mike and I stood and waited until it slowed down near a stop. “All yours Mike” I said, and without an argument Mike set the hook and began to fight another fish. “It feels as big as the last one” he said loudly, so that nearby fisherman on the lake could hear what was going on.
“Are you kidding me” I said, “or is it really as big as the last one?”
“I’m serious Joe, this is another big fish,” he replied like a pro.
I stood there in silence as Mike worked his magic again. Shortly, Mike worked the fish close to the hole and made one quick attempt to get the fish up on the ice. Not saying a word, I watched Mike’s hands plunging toward to the water in an attempt to let the fish make a run without giving it any line. In an instant, I saw mikes hands pull back suddenly and the line in his hands go slack.
“You lost him didn’t you”, I said, as Mike looked toward the hole in a delirious daze as if the fish might decide to jump out of the water and land in his lap.
“What did I do wrong?” he asked me, as I stood there looking down at the hook less leader that lie in his hands.
“You might have rushed him a little. He wasn’t quite ready to come up. Now you know”.
Even the best fisherman in the world lose good fish. That is what keeps us all coming back to these places. We’re always in search of the big one that got away. But for some reason, neither of us was too upset with the loss of this fish. We both looked back at the fish we had already landed that morning and smiled. “We’ve already done better than anyone else on the lake today”, Mike said with his competitive spirit. We slowly walked back to our fish lying on the ice to bring them to shore. “Hey Mike”, I said, “we’re all out of bait”. “All that we have left are what remains on the seven traps still in the water”.
“What? Let’s go get some more”, he quickly answered.
“NO, let’s just fish with what we’ve got left and go home when they are all gone.” I replied.
With that said, we waited only a few minutes before our next flag, which amounted to another splake nearly fourteen inches. Over that next hour, only three traps remained, and all had dead bait from previous hit and runs by earlier fish.
As we sat there waiting for our last flags to go up, talking about the day we were having, a large object flew over heads in one big sweep and landed in a tree not 50 yards down the shore from us at the edge of open water. “It’s an eagle”, I said to Mike. “Why don’t you put that smaller splake out on the edge of the ice for it?” (This was the fish landed earlier in the morning that we kept due to a severe hooking injury.) Mike picked up the fish and walked over toward our closest trap to open water.
“This is as far as I am going” he yelled back to me.
“Sure, now throw it out toward the edge!” I hollered.
As Mike attempted to throw the fish, it slipped from his hand keeping him from getting any true distance and the fish sailed through the air a weak ten feet before it landed on the ice.
“What the Heck kind of wimpy throw was that?” I yelled to Mike.
“Shut up, it slipped! You get out here on this 1 inch of ice and throw the fish!!” he yelled back to me, “You talk a big game when you’re on the safe ice!!”
“Pick it up and throw it out there like a man you wimp” I teasingly replied.
“I’m going to kill you if I break through”, he said with an evil smile. Without any further antagonizing, Mike inched his way out toward that fish. Again, he picked it up and flung that thing close to forty feet to the edge of the open water. “Nice throw” I yelled to Mike.
“That’s good enough!” he replied, “No way am I going any further!”
Mike walked back to me checking on the remaining traps as he came.
“What a day, huh?” he said wiping his hands in the snow, “An absolutely perfect start to 2003 and my days as an ice fisherman.”
“I tell ya, Mike, there are people who have fished all their lives and not had the success we’ve had today.”
Mike replied, “You can’t beat this!”
As the rush of adrenaline from our catches subsided, our bodies began to remind us that we had been up since 2 am and we started to organize our gear to pack up. “The eagle must have left,” Mike said looking up towards the trees, “I haven’t seen her in a while.”
Within a minute of Mike’s saying that the eagle reappeared….it swooped down in front of us picking up the fish Mike had just presented to it.
“Wow….what a day” Mike said, “Let’s end it on that note”. “I agree” I said. And as we picked up our traps and walked back to the truck we reminisced about our day and the good time we had as two friends fishing together. It will forever be a memory that I will never forget.
