What's up my fishy friends!  This was our 3^rd trip to Crescent lake this year, we’ve really been trying to learn this lake with the hope of catching a brown over 10 lbs.  In the past we’ve fished for mackinaw quite a bit, but I told myself this is the year of the brown, so I was gonna stick to it!  Carrie was in Orlando at Disneyworld, so I invited my new fishing buddy Blad with me.  Blad is very new to fishing, so I was intent on hooking a quality fish for him! 

Blad couldn’t make it until late Saturday night, so I drove up from Dexter early Saturday morning, launched the boat by myself and hit the lake.  I’ve been having some success on the far end of the lake, so I motored straight for Boy Scout.  I ran one rod on planar board and the other on a long-line.  I meandered the 20’-50’ depths working my way towards Tandy bay just trying to see where they were hanging out.  About 7:45 am right off Contorta point, my long-line rod folds over HARD, it didn’t bounce at all, it was just pegged!!!  I thought for sure it was a snag.  I quickly picked up the rod and threw her in neutral.  I didn’t feel any headshakes at first, but then it gave a little and eventually I came to realize it was fish on boys!  It was like the fish just put the brakes on and wasn’t going to move when he first hit, awesome!  I had to leave the other rod floating for this, it wasn’t windy so I figured I could manage to avoid a tangle.  It didn’t take me long to realize I had a big mack on.  This fish tore me up and fought hard the whole way in, what a blast!  I can’t remember the last time a Mack fought this good, very strong fish.  I grabbed my coated net...there was no way I was gonna swing a big rubber net one handed for this one!  Once he got to the boat, he took several runs but I was patient and told myself to enjoy every second.  It wasn’t pretty, but I was finally able to net Mr. Mack…what a beast!  His head was gigantic, he was very long and had significant girth…a very mature fish for sure.  I was thinking this would be my personal best except for the beast I lost at the boat a couple years ago.  I didn’t bring the fish into the boat and tried to release him without taking him out of the water...that was my first mistake.  The lure was buried pretty good in the side of his mouth and my rod tip was broken, so I decided to cut the line and make it easy on myself.  It was tough holding the net while trying to remove the lure and hold him in the water.  I tried for a couple minutes but he was thrashing quite a bit and I lost control of the net…he slipped out and swam away with the lure in his mouth, doh!  Didn't matter, I was so excited!  I would guess he was 23-25 lbs. based on other fish we’ve caught.  Lesson learned, bring the fish into the boat solo style!  I gotta say, it sure is fun catching these beauties on long line, more fun than downrigger imo!

We weren’t able to reel in the 3^rd rod, so we left it out there.  While we were releasing the brown, I noticed that rod bouncing a little.  Blad quickly grabbed the rod and started playing what he thought was a good one!  He’s like, “dude, it feels pretty good!”  I was like “sweet, enjoy it man!”  Then I noticed a gull floating kind of odd about 100’ back from the boat.  That’s weird, what the heck is he doing?  Then we realized we had BIRD ON!  Hahaha!!!  Once he got to the boat we noticed his wing was caught up.  I got the wing released but he was pecking me like crazy.  I almost had the bird free when he got both his feet hooked, little bugger!  I got his feet unhooked and almost ready to release him when he pecked the freaking lure!  He had all three points of the treble hook buried in his beak and it was closed shut.  I knew I couldn’t get the hooks out so I asked Blad to grab the dikes so I could cut the hooks.  He was bleeding a little, but he flew off.  He didn’t have a good morning J

Well, we ended up with (9) fish and a bird for 2.5 days of fishing…one of our best trips ever!  We had weather the entire time, squall after squall but we hung in there.  Most fish were suspended.  Lucky Craft Pointers, Husky Jerk, J-13 and XPS were the hot lures. 

Thanks to my new fishing buddy Blad for a great time, I appreciate you toughing it out all day without a break!

Cheers and fish on friends!

Crazy D