A Fish Tale of Sizable Proportions

As we finished dinner on Monday evening, with no baseball that held any interest on the horizon, The Kid announced that he was heading down to the dock to do a little fishing.  Before long he sauntered off, fishing pole in hand looking to enjoy the peace and quiet that dropping a line in the water on a  warm summer evening provides.

An hour or so passed when I heard the front door slide open and The Kid excitedly call, "I need you.  On the dock.  Bring your camera or your phone or something.  I need a picture.  No one is going to believe me."  I quickly grabbed my phone and followed his long, hurried strides back to the dock.

"What's going on," I asked?
"I have something on the line.  It's pretty good sized.  I don't know what it is for sure.  It might be a carp.  I hope it's still there, it went under the dock."

We gave out a collective sigh of relief, when moments later, he determined that it was, indeed, still on the line.  After some careful manipulation from The Kid, the fish emerged unscathed from beneath the dock and stuck his head out of the water.  It was no fat carp and he soon realized we were ill prepared to land it, whatever "it" was.

Reinforcements were needed.

While I called for help, The Kid continued to wrestle the monster and keep him out in open water.  Within minutes our neighbor Tom arrived on the scene, grabbing a net out of his boat along the way.  After a couple of failed attempts and leaning as far out over the water as possible Tom managed to get the net under it and lift the fish safely to the dock.



The two worked together untangling fish from net and removed the hook, loosely held in the corner of its mouth.



What emerged was a 36" Muskie!



Quite the prize and an amazing feat considering it was caught on a pole with a 50 year old reel,  6# test line and a hook the size of a peanut.  (If you aren't familiar with fish speak it translates to never should have landed a fish that big with such puny gear.)



After fighting for almost an hour, this bad boy was done in.  He was admired and photographed.  Then, he was gently returned to the lake where he rested for a few minutes before swimming off.



The boys said it's been a long time since they have seen a smile that big on their Dad.

I'm inclined to agree.