|
Every March for
the past 3 years i've met two of my grade school friends at Crescent for a little fishing. The two previous years the
fishing was rough. The first year we got 1 little Mack to the boat and on the last morning had a Mack bend my hooks out on a
trophy stick platter 6.5 after a 20 min battle. The next year we managed 3 browns the first afternoon going 10,8 and 5lbs.Then
a storm blew in and we couldn't fish. When they meet me at the lake i provide all the poles and tackle and we simply rotate
bites. As luck would have it neither of them had gotten into a quality fish, and since their trout fishing is surmised
of cutthroats and rainbows i really wanted to get them into some quality fish. Well, things worked out perfect this year as
Jayson landed the first fish after less than a hour on the water. A 14 # Mack.
| Jeremy Evers buddy, Jayson, with a nice mack! |
|
|
| 14 lb Crescent Lake Mackinaw to start the trip off right! |
A little later Toby landed a "lil" mack and that evening i caught a
9 lb brown trout, which was very skinny with an empty looking belly.
| Jeremy Evers gets on the board! |
|
|
| A 9lb German Brown!! What a great fish!!! |
The next morning Jayson landed a 8 lb hookjaw brown which had a
large head and small body.
| Jayson gets himself a great hookjaw |
|
|
| An 8 lber with a monster head! What a fantastic trip so far!!! |
Then it was Tobys turn. I noticed a small bump on the rigger and told
toby to take it. He grabbed the pole i was pointing at and broke it free from the clip. He announced that it felt small and
i told him to keep reeling as i know how hard it can be to judge size with over 200 feet of line out. He kept reeling till
the counter had 100 feet to go, then he started to feel the fish but he still said it felt small. With only 40" to go
i could see the fish and knew that we had a good chance of finally breaking to 20# mark. Just then the fish stripped off 60'
of line . Twice more he got the Mack to the 40' mark and twice more it ran out another 60'. On the fourth try after holding
at 40' for a while the fish gave up the fight and finally came the last 40' to the boat. 23lbs and 37"!!
| Jeremy's buddy, Toby, with a HUGE Laker!! |
|
|
| 23 lbs and 37 inches long! Way to break the 20 lb mark, guys!!! |
The next
bite came in the same spot and it was Jayson's turn. This fish felt heavy to him and he began to horse it in. Worried about
the air bladder i told him to take it easy, and let the fish run. After i got the other lines cleared and the net ready, i
looked at Jayson. He had the rod up and it has loaded but there was no action to the rod. I looked at the counter and it read
180' and we were only 120" deep? I told him to reel and put more pressure on the fish. When he did the rod sprung and came
up empty. Oh well you don't know if you don't try. Next was my turn and i landed a 16lb Mack just a few hundred yards past
the previous spot.
| Jeremy's Turn...another great-looking fish! |
|
|
| This laker tipped the scales at 16 lbs! What a great trip!!! |
We decided to head in for lunch. After lunch the bit was off.
Jayson landed a 5lber brown and that was it for the day. The next morning we got off to a late start. Although
we were ready to fish before dawn. My motors were froze tight and wouldn't pee till after we let the sun thaw them out.
It was after 9 before we were able to head out on the water. We broke a little ice on our way to our good luck spot from the
day before but once back down in the depths we were able to hook and land a fat 11lb Mack.
| 11 lb Laker for Jeremy Evers! |
|
|
| Crescent Lake spit out some quality fish for this annual trip! AWESOME!!! |
Now with checkout time looming over our heads we were ready to call
it a day. Toby with a P.B. Mack, Jayson with a P.B. Mack and Brown and me just happy to of gotten them both into fish
and to be able to say that my boat finally had a 20 lber in it.That afternoon i
went to Billy. By the time i got settled into a cabin at the State park i only had about two hours to fish. I tried with no
luck. The next morning was a different story as i headed up to the island with a different friend who joined me during
the night. His name is Corey and he will be the first to admit that he is a hunter not a fisherman. And let me tell you it
showed. After driving the boat to the island i let him take the wheel as i let out our offerings. One flat lined and two on
the riggers. Corey was content to drive the boat while i tended the rods. A short time latter the flatlined rod buried. No
bounce of throb, just buried. I glanced at the fish finder which read 40" and my lure only ran 20". i grabbed the rod
and once i could feel the weight of the fish i told Corey to clear the rods. He stood up , took a look at the down riggers
and asked how. I simply said "pop them loose".Never seeing a downrigger before he leaned over the boat, grabbed the
cable and began to jerk. It took a couple minutes and a couple deep cuts on his hands before he decided to grab the poles
and pop the clips loose. The term "fish out of water" came to mind. Anyway he got the lines cleared and the net ready
in time to catch the first glance of my p.b. bull as it neared the boat. I feared the worst as i could see the mono wrapped
around it's upper jaw a couple times. It wasn't pretty but we managed to get it in. Once in the boat i was able to see why
the Bull didn't put up much fight. The rear hook was lodged in the corner of his mouth,the middle hook was stuck in his
left eye, the lure had broken in half at the joint and the front hook was imbedded in the Bulls right eye with 2 wraps
of mono around his upper jaw. This configuration had made a harness of sorts and really limited the amount of head shaking
the poor fish could do. With both eyes damaged i figured his chance of survival
would be minimal and at over 27" and 9 lbs he would look best on my wall. After telling Corey i was going to keep
him he let out a large woop, Which immediately caused every boat within earshot to motor over our direction and start fishing. (Rookie).
Well with our fishing hole now over crowded and my lucky lure ruined we tried the rest of the day to put Corey into a fish
with no luck We trolled a total of 16 miles with nothing more than a couple bumps to show for it. We tried Black Lyman's,
Black/silver and Koke Assassins, broken back Rapals you name it. Nothing. All in all we had a great day. Corey
is content to know that, although a poor shot, he is a better hunter than me and that i am a FAR better fisherman.
| Jeremey Evers with his P.B. BUll Trout |
|
|
| 27 inches and 9 lbs, sounds like it's going on the wall. Congratulations, Jeremy! WHAT A TRIP!! |
Thanks
for everything Jeremy
|
