Took our neighbour out today. She wanted to see why we got up to leave the house by 5:20 am on the weekends. We have had a very successful year thus far. We have been hosts to friends, neighbours, and relatives an most have experienced mostly positive results, with springs ranging from 12 - 25 lbs. Many whites and many good battles. Prior to this season, I could have counted on one hand the number of fish we have caught over the years on a plug - now it is our go-to lure
. Today, I dropped the DR to 225 and it the clip popped just as I was slowing down the brake to set the rod tension. While I was muttering a few expletives about having to reset, the rod pounded and out flew the line. Set the hook, set the tension, and handed it over to our guest. Eventually, we landed a beautiful 16# red and she learned about the origin of the Peetz reel 'knucklebuster'...
. Wonderful fight.
That was the not the highlight however. Just prior to that, we were trolling well off the back on the North Side of the humps, when the plug at 225 dipped and released. I took it, pseudo-offered it around, quickly took the tacit permission to play the fish...and play we did! It peeled out line and came straight back at a steady pace. Halfway out, it ran again and came back in, repeat, repeat, repeat. Saw one breach ~ 150 yds out, big splash, and down it went. Fantastic pulls - heavy and hard, lots of head shakes. We brought it to within 20 yards of the boat, and that was it stalemate. Couple of reels in, couple of pulls out. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Cleared both sides so took it to port...it took us to starboard. Moved to starboard and it took us to port. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Not a boat around so no worries there, but we were starting to appreciate a good fish. Eventually we saw a back and a fin just under the surface and off it went. Over and over, never giving a layover for us for more than a couple of seconds, but when it did, wow. For the first time in ages, I felt we had a nice size fish on the line. We eventually caught up to it, it layed over, and I watched as my wife dropped the opening of the net bag for the head to enter...awesome. Took both hands to lift the net into the boat and we just stared at it. I knew it was a good size and debated for a bit about releasing it back. Almost 30 years to the day, I caught in a spring in Port that weighted just about 35#. Today, we landed our second spring ever of that size and after a bit of internal debate, it was kept and enjoyed and brought home to be further enjoyed over several meals and beverages. Just over 35# on the scale - a large fat male that had the underbelly of a white and the spine meat of a red. Epic and extraordinary battle to be savoured. Not meant to be a hero pic, just wanted to share a picture to accompany a story that has ended a great summer of family and friends and a fish that will be enjoyed over the winter with the story repeated.