Wednesday 6/25/08.
I had gotten back from Texas on 6/23/08, went into work on the following day. Jason Rawls asked if I wanted to go to pine view and enter a tournament for Tiger Muskie on Wednesday. I figured it had been a whole two days since my last fishing trip so what the heck why not?
We headed out from his place about 5:30 a.m. which ironically is the same time we leave for work. By seven we were on the lake also kind of funny because that’s when we have our morning meeting to find out our daily tasks at work, we had ours on the boat dock. Fished around a little and had fun talking and telling stories about other fishing trips. Rawls let out a yell! He had just seen the first Tiger of the day it had followed his lure in but didn’t take.
Shortly after I had one on my line and Jason's got the net he scooped it up, and handed me a leather glove I looked at the fish and told Rawls to lip that sucker. “You lip him!” was his reply. At that point the fish turned his head while opening its mouth. I then knew why Rawls didn’t want to stick his hand to close to a Muskie’s teeth. We were all giddy because the boat had seen its first Muskie. It was 25" on the nose.
Jason then hooked a good one it ran straight down into the deep tangling itself around some structure. Jason had told me a story earlier in the day about on of the guy’s in the tournament that had dove into Grantsville Reservoir to free up a stuck anchor, so then we discussed diving in and trying to untangle the line other options included dropping the anchor and using the rope to guide me down to the bottom to pull it loss. Both ideas didn’t seem too bad in only 15ft. of water but I really didn't like the idea of Muskie teeth and dark water. After steering the boat in circles and tugging from every possible angle I had a brain storm. I started throwing the anchor in past his line and dragging it back toward me. We had did this a dozen or so times when I looked around us and seen what I thought was a sunning carp on the water about 10-20 yards away from us. We both then realized it was a Tiger and pretty good sized at that. I told Jason to hold on for awhile and that I was going to cast in front of it a couple times. The fish didn’t respond to the lure and was acting kind of sluggish. Then the second light bulb, It was Jason’s fish. Somehow between the anchor and the tugging we had worked it off the hook. Jason used the trolling motor and went towards it with net in hand. The fish swam deeper into the murky water but Rawls long arms reached down and scooped it up. He was excited! Turned out to be 29 1/2” long and was quit tired after the fight but Rawls did his magic and worked it back to life and off it went.
We continued to have a good time eating snacks and sandwiches often getting calls from work asking questions it was shaping up to be a great day not even noon and two great fish. We had tried a few different baits up to this point. Rawls had even worked a rattle trap we found hung up in the trees. He told me to use what ever I wanted in his tackle box, so I snooped around for something that might catch the big one. From the radio static we could understand we figured Rawls fish was in second place to a 40” that another boat had caught. We needed a big one if we wanted the purse. Rawls dug into a bag and pulled out a crack bait that looks just like a crappie about 3” long and pretty hefty. I through it out a couple times trying to get it to look like a small fish. We both chuckled about it because the splash it made was larger than an Olympic Diver would make.
“The guy at Sportsman’s Warehouse told me if he was fishing for Muskie’s this is what he’d us.” Rawls told me.
I played with it for a couple casts it was hard to get the speed right so the action looked like a real fish. On the next cast after the tsunami had passed, WHAM I had another one on. By now he had landed a few and got this one in with no problem. 25” again I think this fish is following us around. We laughed are heads off at the idea this actually worked not more that 15 cast’s and the Crappie had taken blood.
The day passed by with a lot of casting and a few snags. The Crappie lure got caught up on a branch and after tugging to hard I ripped it in half. It now looks as if Jaws took a chuck out of its rear end. I think Rawls needs to make a plaque that says “Have I got a story for you” and mount it on it.
We moved across to the other side of the lake only after fishing the shore line that had the two pieced sun bather laid out on it. The other side turned out to be a good choice. It was a nice set up with lots of cover and nice structure to cast around. I hooked a nice small mouth bass shortly after getting there. We then worked the shoreline making some picture perfect casts and not letting one hole pass by us. We where coming up on a point and Rawls mentioned how he liked the look of it. He let his line rip and placed his secret lure right in the honey hole. You guessed it “FISH ON”. This one was a little trickier to get into the boat the wind was pushing us hard into the shore and the trolling motor was running low on juice, but we overcame and got it in another 25”.
After starting back down the shoreline I placed a cast parallel to the bank about three feet out from some reeds. Me lure was about five feet from the boat when a flash of light went past it, shot he missed it! Rawls told me to let the line out and just let it sit. After waiting a couple seconds I started to retrieve again and BAM the fight was on. I guess this is a common technique for Muskie’s that miss the lure. Rawls pulled up the trolling motor and started to outboard driving us into deeper water. The wind was just tossing us around too much and he didn’t want to hit any structure while trying to land the fish. I had the fish about 10 feet from the boat when he lifted his head and shook the hook right out of his mouth. I was bummed out. We checked the clock and had about an hour before having to go back to the dock and meet back up with everyone. We decided to go try that same shoreline one more time.
The wind was still blowing and the motor was on its last leg, when we came up to Rawls point again I tossed my line in and started reeling. My line tightened and another fish was trying to get lose. I worked him in fast because I didn’t want another one to get off. He was a good on the first time the net came up with him his tail was out of one side and his head out the other. I was scared he was going to get away, but Jason is a pro and scooped him up. 31” long and really nice colored.
We headed back toward the boat dock to check in. It was still kind of early and the wind calmed down so we fished along an area by the dock, Rawls had one follow him right in by the boat. He didn’t notice it in time and when he engaged the trolling motor it took off. We meet back up around 4:00 pm and they handed out the prize money. First place was 40 ½” and second was 40”. After talking with the other boats we found out we had caught the most the next closest had caught four fish, but they had three people. Rawls took some time to say bye to his friends and then we headed home, but not until he talked his way out of a ticket for his boat being unregistered. In the parking lot he stopped and took some pictures of a moose.
Well it might not surprise you but he left the lake around 5:40 pm which is the same time we leave work. Then to top off the day I walked through my door at 7:00 pm which just happens to be the time I get home on most work days. I have to say that I love my job, but if I could do this four days a week life would be Great.
Thanks Rawls for the good times and the great stories we’ve made.