Genio in duluth
08-28-2004, 07:59 AM
Fish are really biting in Island Lake, boy discovers
BY SAM COOK
NEWS TRIBUNE OUTDOORS WRITER
One moment, 11-year-old Mason DeRosier was hunting frogs. The next, he became the hunted.
Mason and his 9-year-old sister, Katelyn, were wading in about a foot of water on Island Lake, near Moose Lake, when he was attacked by a muskellunge or a northern pike. The resulting lacerations required 11 stitches.
Both kids are from Silver Bay and were at a family cabin on Island Lake when the incident occurred about5 p.m. Thursday.
Mason's father, Richard DeRosier, was in a paddle boat just offshore and witnessed the event.
"I was facing them, and I see a #### of a swirl," said DeRosier, a Lake County deputy sheriff. "Before I can say 'Holy moly! Look at that!' all of a sudden the swirl is by their feet."
Mason saw the original swirl just offshore.
"It was like maybe five feet in front of us," Mason said. "Then it splashed right at my foot and bit me. It hurt."
And the fish didn't let go immediately.
"I smacked it in the head and tried to pry it off my foot," Mason said. "He let go, but he bit my hand."
Both children were screaming throughout the incident, their father said. Katelyn wasn't bitten.
Mason was taken in his grandfather's motorboat back to the cabin, where he washed his wounds. Then he was off to the hospital emergency room in Moose Lake.
He received eight stitches in his left hand and three in the bottom of his right foot. He has numerous other bite marks across the top of his foot, his dad said.
"I'll bet he has 20 cuts on his foot and 10 cuts on his hand," Richard DeRosier said.
Nobody got a good look at the fish. Island Lake, just across Interstate 35 from Sand Lake in Pine County, has muskies and northern pike, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Either species would be capable of inflicting the kind of wounds Mason suffered.
Because Mason's foot hurts too much to walk on, the family decided to postpone a planned trip to Valleyfair in Shakopee, Minn. On Friday, Mason was back at the cabin recuperating.
But he and Katelyn weren't chasing any frogs.
BY SAM COOK
NEWS TRIBUNE OUTDOORS WRITER
One moment, 11-year-old Mason DeRosier was hunting frogs. The next, he became the hunted.
Mason and his 9-year-old sister, Katelyn, were wading in about a foot of water on Island Lake, near Moose Lake, when he was attacked by a muskellunge or a northern pike. The resulting lacerations required 11 stitches.
Both kids are from Silver Bay and were at a family cabin on Island Lake when the incident occurred about5 p.m. Thursday.
Mason's father, Richard DeRosier, was in a paddle boat just offshore and witnessed the event.
"I was facing them, and I see a #### of a swirl," said DeRosier, a Lake County deputy sheriff. "Before I can say 'Holy moly! Look at that!' all of a sudden the swirl is by their feet."
Mason saw the original swirl just offshore.
"It was like maybe five feet in front of us," Mason said. "Then it splashed right at my foot and bit me. It hurt."
And the fish didn't let go immediately.
"I smacked it in the head and tried to pry it off my foot," Mason said. "He let go, but he bit my hand."
Both children were screaming throughout the incident, their father said. Katelyn wasn't bitten.
Mason was taken in his grandfather's motorboat back to the cabin, where he washed his wounds. Then he was off to the hospital emergency room in Moose Lake.
He received eight stitches in his left hand and three in the bottom of his right foot. He has numerous other bite marks across the top of his foot, his dad said.
"I'll bet he has 20 cuts on his foot and 10 cuts on his hand," Richard DeRosier said.
Nobody got a good look at the fish. Island Lake, just across Interstate 35 from Sand Lake in Pine County, has muskies and northern pike, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Either species would be capable of inflicting the kind of wounds Mason suffered.
Because Mason's foot hurts too much to walk on, the family decided to postpone a planned trip to Valleyfair in Shakopee, Minn. On Friday, Mason was back at the cabin recuperating.
But he and Katelyn weren't chasing any frogs.