Welcome Back, Sir!

Last night I fished with my trusty sidekick, Hedrik Wachelka, for a couple hours. Hedrik has been out of commission since June 8th after having surgery and this was one of his first times out casting since then. I mostly wanted to catch up with Hedrik and take a few casts, but in the process of chit-chatting I was able to raise two muskies. We made a plan to spend more time on this body of water the following day (today... well, yesterday for those on Eastern time) and call it Hedrik's first outing since his surgery.

We got a late start and arrived at the launch around 1PM. I didn't have a follow for several hours, and we kept returning to the same area multiple times in hopes of finding the fish during an active period.

Eventually, we did. It started with a bass here, then there, then here again. Three bass in a short period of time wasn't too bad, but we were looking for Esox masquinongy, the fish of 10,000 casts. As we continued drifting down our narrow path, I finally contacted what looked to be a very active fish. The black Weagle was suddenly looking very much like it would be the victim of an attack, but alas twas not to be. The fish sunk below the bait and out of sight when the lure reached the boat.

We finished our drift and I said to Hedrik, let's re-drift this area again. Without even pulling the trolling motor up I turn the boat and slowly start idling back to the beginning of our drift. Earlier, we were trolling bucktails to no avail and Hedrik still had that rod on deck. As I began slowly motoring away, Hedrik picked his rod up and chucked his bucktail out. Not more than 15 seconds later, Hedrik's rod is doubled over and Hedrik is struggling to gain control of the rod. Stupidly I ask, "FISH?" I needn't hear the answer as Hedrik's rod-tip began thumping wildly and the culprit churning the water to a froth in the distance. The fight lasted about 50 seconds and soon we had another fish for Project Noble Beast in the bag!

Hopefully this is the start of good things to come!