Joined
·
1,332 Posts
Weather was great, but it was another tough day on Shabbona. My son and I hit the water about 10:30am, fished the NorthEast bay throwing chatters, spinners and senkos with nothing.
Moved to the North cove and picked up a few dink bass on minnows.
Decided to try for some Crappie, hit up the campground cribs using minnows and mini-mites without success. Moved to the NMZ and tried 6-7 different tree/stump areas without anything... quite unusual.
Moved and anchored over the old roadbed off of the point by North cove. Figured to pick up a few cats at least to feel something decent pulling on the line. Bite picked up about 4:30, and we ended up with about 12 decent perch, a few more bass in the 10-12" range, and then it happend......
My son's rod bends so far over I thought it was going to snap! He stand's up with kind of a panicked look on his face, and asked me which way to loosen his drag. I'm grabbing for the net, and telling him "left! loosen it to the left!" and to play it easy so the line won't snap.
Well he only has 8lb line on, and the drag is singing like a supercharger, then the line goes slack. Thought he'd lost it, then he starts to reel in the slack and says "Oh wait, it's still there..." About 2' from the boat the water explodes and a huge Musky jumps! It saw the boat and did the 'ol Esox roll and dove under the boat, and before I could tell him to open his bail, it snapped the line and was gone. He was broken hearted, but I think his heart was still racing when we got home around 7 that night.
And the kicker of this was, he was fishing a nightcrawler on the bottom in about 3' of water! :shock:
Although it wasn't much solice to him, I explained to him that even experienced fishermen with proper gear lose fish like that on occassion.
He already asked me on our way home when we'd be coming back so he can catch that Musky!
Moved to the North cove and picked up a few dink bass on minnows.
Decided to try for some Crappie, hit up the campground cribs using minnows and mini-mites without success. Moved to the NMZ and tried 6-7 different tree/stump areas without anything... quite unusual.
Moved and anchored over the old roadbed off of the point by North cove. Figured to pick up a few cats at least to feel something decent pulling on the line. Bite picked up about 4:30, and we ended up with about 12 decent perch, a few more bass in the 10-12" range, and then it happend......
My son's rod bends so far over I thought it was going to snap! He stand's up with kind of a panicked look on his face, and asked me which way to loosen his drag. I'm grabbing for the net, and telling him "left! loosen it to the left!" and to play it easy so the line won't snap.
Well he only has 8lb line on, and the drag is singing like a supercharger, then the line goes slack. Thought he'd lost it, then he starts to reel in the slack and says "Oh wait, it's still there..." About 2' from the boat the water explodes and a huge Musky jumps! It saw the boat and did the 'ol Esox roll and dove under the boat, and before I could tell him to open his bail, it snapped the line and was gone. He was broken hearted, but I think his heart was still racing when we got home around 7 that night.
And the kicker of this was, he was fishing a nightcrawler on the bottom in about 3' of water! :shock:
Although it wasn't much solice to him, I explained to him that even experienced fishermen with proper gear lose fish like that on occassion.
He already asked me on our way home when we'd be coming back so he can catch that Musky!
