A True and Bizzare Fish Story

[Guest]

Here is a real story from yesterday, an example of the Fishing Gods frowning upon my attempts to 'help' my son get a walleye.

We were up in Alexandria to fish for eyes.

One of my main goals was to get my 8-year old son his first eye - it's all he talks about.

In the AM my wife is taking me and my son down to Minnewaska. After we are 1/2 way there, we realize he is wearing just sneakers and no boots because its 'too warm for boots' - needless to say, my wife left me at the lake alone and took him back to get properly dressed, the plan being to bring him by later.

Fishing is slow. It occurs to me that if I get an eye, I should save it and put it on my line when I see my son coming, so he can 'catch' his first one. What the heck, I figure, he'll never know, and he will be so excited. Yes, I know there are moral ambiguities here, but he will be a happy camper and I see no harm in it.

So I manage to get one little 10 incher. I toss it in the minnow bucket, which had actually gotten quite warm. 15 minutes later the eye is belly up and looking not so good. Since I have lots of holes drilled that I'm not using, I decide to hook him real good on a lure and toss him a few feet down the hole to freshen him up.

Note that during this time I had 2 tipups in my other holes.

As I am doing this, it occurs to me that if a Fish-n-Game Officer came by, it would look a little funny. Oh well, I am too tired to drill another hole to make a 'livewell' in the ice, and my kid should be here real soon.

So as I am getting done putting the fish in the hole, I look up and what do I see but a 4-wheeler coming straight at me with a helmeted driver with a little badge on his coat. There can be no doubt who he is. The timing is incredible. There are houses and fishers everywhere, but he is headed straight at me. What's more, his partner is coming around the other side. If I lift the line up with the fish on it will not look good at all.

The first thing they observe are my '3 lines' in the water. I explain sheepishly what I am doing, and then reel in my close-to-dead, ugly walleye in order to prove that I am not really fishing with the 3rd line.

You should have seen them look at each other, trying to figure out what to do with me. Luckily, they let me off the hook, but told me to take up one of my tipups. I obliged happily. (In my mind, the rod+walleye was really no different than having a stringer in the water - but I know they could have nailed me anyway)

After a while I figure screw this, I want two lines, so I made a little livewell in the ice for the eye, who was looking pretty dead, and took him off the line. I went back to two tipups but caught nothing more.

So now I see my kid coming. I pull up one tipup and hook the walleye on to an Angel Eye Jr, with a minnow on it for an added touch of realism, and put it in a hole. I had to put a split shot on to actually lower the fish to the bottom, since he wanted to float. I'm hoping my son won't notice that the eye doesn't look real energetic when he comes up.

5 seconds later, I see my rod tip jerking energetically, so I reel in a little....

The 'almost dead' fish shook the lure out and got off the line!!

%$#@!

Needless to say, no walleye for my son on that morning fraught with irony.

On the other hand, I guess I'm lucky the fish didn't decide to shake off the lure right before the officers came..."Yeah, see, I got this half-dead walleye on for my kid...oh gosh, he got off! Really, Officer, he did, I'm not fishin with this line I swear!!..."

ak

[Cyberfish]

Haha, goon one. That reminds me of the time I took two kids out in my boat for an afternoon of pike fishing. The small pike were quite easy to catch, and I was getting one every five minnutes on a spinnerbait. One of the kids could not cast too well and could not catch anything, plus, he never got a fish before. So next time I got a bite I handed him the rod and told him to hold on and reel it in. Well, next thing happens is this "little pike" starts pullin' the boat around. Good thing I had 30 pound fireline! I just told him to hold on tight. well, finally he got it in. a 35 incher! whoo hoo!

Cyb ><>

[Guest]

ak,

That is a story for Friday the 13th. You were just a day late. LOL

[Guest]

hey i like that one,some real good ice humor

[Guest]

That's really something.

At least the trip will be memorable for you for the rest of your life.

PCG

[Steve Foss]

And it'll be a great story to tell your son when he gets older and has scores of 'eyes under his belt.

[Jig O Bit]

AK - you get an A for effort!!

[Guest]

This has some good ice humor!
Arnt you lucky you didn't get a ticket.
And that is a definitely a A for great effort.

------------------
FISHSTUNNER

[This message has been edited by fishstunner (edited 12-15-2002).]

[Guest]

The other funny thing is that this is related to the only event in my fishing life in which I ever got a ticket...

I grew up in Utah, where I fished all through my childhood and teenage years and always (except for once) obeyed the letter of the law.

When I was about 20, I was one day fishing a resevoir with my then girlfriend, who persuaded me to go ahead and toss a second line out from shore, as we had an extra rod and reel with us.

No sooner is the 2nd line in before I turn around and see, up on the road about 50 yards away, a parked pickup. I can see the driver holding binoculars, looking directly at me. Yep, it was Fish and Game.

I think I payed about $65 for that. I have never since exceeded the legal number of lines allowed!!

I am 36, have fished a lot most of my life, and only three times have I been approached by a state official while fishing - that Utah incident, the aforementioned Minnewaska incident, and the third time when my partner had for once forgotten to bring his licencse (!)

ak

[wishiniwerefishin]

Kinda shows you that they are always watching, whether you know it or not!