Sunnies save the day...

[Guest]

My brother, friend, and I decided to do the opener this year, very spur of the moment like. So not having much of a plan in place, I quickly got the battery charged Friday nite and remembered some provisions, including sandwiches, beverages, bait, etc..while forgeting some others. Not hitting the lake too early we pushed out around 8:00. Only to find out the big motor was not going to fire. After 10 minutes of pulling (gonna replace that SOB soon), I decided to check the spark plugs to see if they were fouled, and while leaning over, the wrench slipped and snapped the first plug in half! Remaining somewhat calm, and managed to put the cover back on, sit down before firing off an expletive loud enough to wake up all of the non fisherman in the area.
I did have a new electric trolling motor and the battery was charged, so we crawled out to some deeper water past the bay in order to see if we could convince at least one walleye to tour the inside of our boat. There were many boats working the 10-15 ft. area, and we futzed and putzed around them for 2 hours to no avail. We caught 2 or 3 bass the size of a #7 rapala, and observed no action amoungst the boats in the area. Freezing (of course I forgot a warm jacket sitting in the garage next to the boat where I would not forget it) and not wanting to miss game 1 of the Wild, we slowly made our way towards to landing, stopping occasionally to see if the panfish were in shallow yet. In a bay within a slapshot of the launch, my buddy landed a plump sunnie. All brightly colored, it was a sight for sore eyes. Within minutes, my brother and friend had a double going, with myself throwing out the anchor and joining in. Twenty fat sunnies soon were in the livewell for a fish fry after the game. As we were getting ready to leave, trying to time our landing so we would not have to wait a half hour at the launch, my brother hooked on to another sunnie. The next thing you know, his ultralite pole in bent in half. I asked if he had Moby Sunnie on, and he thought he had hooked a tree. That is until the tree began to swim off. My friend and I watched, amazed the 4 pound test line was holding, and trying to figure out which one of us was going to help, as of course the landing net was still in the garage, next to my jacket. After about five minutes, my brother brought it closed enough to the boat for us to catch a glimpse. It was the biggest muskie, heck, the biggest fish I had ever seen in 30 years of fishing. No more than 5 feet from the boat, the muskie (easily 20 plus pounds) opened his mouth, and spit the lifeless sunnie to the surface. We sat in the boat speachless for a couple of minutes, knowing we had a fish story that would come up for every opener, or outing for the rest of our lives. Thanks to the sunnies for turning a sappy and crappy day into one to remember. P.S. they tasted great, even after an overtime loss to the Ducks.

[Pannyraid]

Great story.

I wish our opener was that exciting.

One walleye on Mille Lacs in 8 hours.