Muskies and Dogs

Questions about Freshwater Fishing

Muskies and Dogs

Postby Northcoastie » Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:37 pm

If you fish with man's best friend, you must have some stories... here's one of mine:

Last fall, my wife Pam and I, with our Labrador retriever, Tar, traveled to Manitowish Waters for a week of bass and musky angling. The first night (after check-in and boat launch) was anticipated--by the Solunar tables, local guides, and me--to be awash in musky-raising alignments of sun and moon. So Pam, Tar and I set sail an hour before sunset to commence the hunt, full of anticipation. Indeed, we raised three fish in that first hour, but landed none. Still it was an exciting evening, with more, I was convinced, to offer.

it was just as the setting sun cast a warm orange glow on the water, that I loaded my nearly new St Croix rod to cast a topwater bait on the idyllic scene. There were only three, but they were long beautiful casts, with each retrieve’s plop, plop, plop enticing our prey to come out and play. Twenty yards from the boat, behind the gurgling bait, rose a denizen to answer the third siren call. It was the greatest musky head I have seen (but I stipulate that it is possible, as my wife claims, that it grows larger with each telling), the enormous mouth engulfing the bait without hesitation. My strong hookset triggered immediate aerobatics. Fish on!

Tar, who had been asleep in the cockpit of the boat, awoke, poked her head above the gunwales, saw the commotion, and without hesitation launched over the side to take a more active role in what looked to be a lot of fun. My wife, apparently also asleep in the back of the boat, awoke to Tar’s splash with a screech of “No Tar, NO!!” (She would continue this refrain throughout the next 60 seconds at full voice, bringing all the lake’s inhabitants to the end of their docks, looking in our direction, phones in hand, poised to dial 911 to report the apparent murder occurring in the middle of the lake).

While those 60 seconds remain a bit of a blur for me, I do recall: trying to work the fish to the other side of the boat to escape Tar’s most earnest efforts to retrieve the fish to hand; looking out to see Tar “mounting” the musky (she makes friends quickly), fully astride the enormous fish; and, the gaping, toothy maw of the fish boatside as it spat the bait, unfortunately, but with great accuracy, into Tar’s ear.

As the uncaptured fish returned to the depths, we dragged Tar aboard and removed the hook, which fortunately had not penetrated beyond the barb. While Tar and my wife retreated to the rear of the boat, I surveyed the carnage to discover that sometime during the melee, the top 10 inches of the rod had snapped off.

I do not know where in the episode the rod broke: it might have happened in the hookset, or with the exertion of pulling the fish to the other side of the boat; it might have happened when the fish spit the hook; or it might have happened when I carefully and gently (“hah!” my wife would say) set the rod down to pull the dog aboard—I just don’t know--but I do not in the slightest hold St Croix responsible under these extreme circumstances. [Although what a great endorsement it would have made to have actually landed the dog/fish without breaking the rod—I would have sent you a picture of dog, fish and angler with rod—with my blessing to use it in St Croix's advertising. My imagination envisions the picture would have become an iconic depiction of musky fishing—a renewal of bond between a man and his best friend in the joint pursuit of a great predator].

If you knew me, you would understand that for the rest of the evening both wife and dog stayed as far away from me as an 18 foot boat allows. I mourned the loss of the rod and the fish; I was mortified by the shenanigans of my dog; I was humiliated by my wife’s vocalizations that called public attention to the unfolding calamity; and upon reflection in the next day’s light, I was embarrassed by my own bad behavior in the wake of the event. And in my superstitious funk, I knew without doubt—and was proven correct by time—that there would be no more muskies that evening, or on that trip. But time heals all and today, my wife still loves me, the dog curls at my feet without serious wound, and the monster awaits my return. The rod, alas, is beyond repair.
Northcoastie
 
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Re: Muskies and Dogs

Postby aka anglinarcher » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:22 pm

LOL - That sums it up well.
I think my bucket list has a hole in the bottom!
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Re: Muskies and Dogs

Postby dahlberg » Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:51 am

Great story! Thank for sharing it! I read it three times to my dog Mojo who laughed out loud.
best,
L
Larry Dahlberg
The Hunt For Big Fish
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Re: Muskies and Dogs

Postby aka anglinarcher » Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:33 pm

No vet bill!

Had a dog grab a lure one time. $$$$

My dogs are landlocked now.
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