BTPF
10-14-2002, 08:03 PM
Called in sick and went fishing Friday on lake Monona. Was one of the nicest days of the year weather wise, a little too sunny for perfect fishing but I thought what the heck.
Started trolling down the shoreline and was hitting tons of weeds and getting hung up constantly. So I headed for the Monona terrace area where I found some deep water. I was marking tons and tons of fish (Huge ones!).
I made a pass and noticed the water was between 35-45 feet deep. So I made a mental note that I would come back in about a hour or two with some serious deep diving crankbaits and hopefully nail one.
Well about 20 minutes later I caught my biggest pike ever, It was just a 32 inch pike but was still a thrill. Now for the embarrasing part. :(
I brought in all my lures and replaced them with my deepest diving baits. I got all ready and began trolling for where the monsters were in the 35-45 foot water I passed earlier. I started hitting some good size waves and was marking fish all over the place.
All of a sudden the pole hanging off the right side of my boat started screaming! I knew instantly I had one because my bait was tops 20 feet down and I was in 40+ feet of water!!!!
I shutoff the motor off and grabbed my pole and instantly felt the weight of this true monster!! The waves were crashing and I only have a bass boat so I was bouncing all over the place but the fish was staying down and would not come up. I instantly thought this is it! A 50 incher!!! I was yelling like a mad man "I got em!!!!"
After another 10 seconds I thought to myself for a split second. Its a 50 pounder!!! This guy on a pontoon boat comes flying in from a few hundred yards away and says what is it?!!!!??! I yelled back I dont know but whatever it is its big!!!
Then I gave it one hard yank and still could not get it to move. I finally yelled back to him that I thought it was a snag. :(
He yells back that its like 50 feet deep where I was at. I said I know its got to be one. So I gave it another pull but could not get it to budge more than a foot or so. I told him its either a snag or a dead body. I began thinking that I could only imagine spending the rest of the day talking to cops telling them about what happened and being on the news. "State worker who calls in sick pulls a dead body out of Monona while fishing" Well finally I put the pole down and the guy says if it is a dead body you can have it. Then he yells out, "Thats really too bad, check out the audience you would of had pulling out a 50 pounder"
I turned around and on Monona terrace looking off the side was over 50 people watching me. Hot chicks on roller blades, bikers, cooks from the hotel, and all kinds of other people. They were all looking at me. :(
So I got the boat motor started and drove to the other side of the snag and began reeling. I reeled and there was nothing there except when my bait came to the surface there was a 50 foot long anchor rope attached to it. :( It must of been hooked to an anchor and either the current or waves was making it float up within 20 feet of the surface. I still cant believe it actually broke off from the anchor.
The rope was brand new and made of very high quality. So I chucked my hat down in the boat and took off as fast as I could to get out of there to avoid anybody possibly identifying me.
At least I caught that pike though.
Started trolling down the shoreline and was hitting tons of weeds and getting hung up constantly. So I headed for the Monona terrace area where I found some deep water. I was marking tons and tons of fish (Huge ones!).
I made a pass and noticed the water was between 35-45 feet deep. So I made a mental note that I would come back in about a hour or two with some serious deep diving crankbaits and hopefully nail one.
Well about 20 minutes later I caught my biggest pike ever, It was just a 32 inch pike but was still a thrill. Now for the embarrasing part. :(
I brought in all my lures and replaced them with my deepest diving baits. I got all ready and began trolling for where the monsters were in the 35-45 foot water I passed earlier. I started hitting some good size waves and was marking fish all over the place.
All of a sudden the pole hanging off the right side of my boat started screaming! I knew instantly I had one because my bait was tops 20 feet down and I was in 40+ feet of water!!!!
I shutoff the motor off and grabbed my pole and instantly felt the weight of this true monster!! The waves were crashing and I only have a bass boat so I was bouncing all over the place but the fish was staying down and would not come up. I instantly thought this is it! A 50 incher!!! I was yelling like a mad man "I got em!!!!"
After another 10 seconds I thought to myself for a split second. Its a 50 pounder!!! This guy on a pontoon boat comes flying in from a few hundred yards away and says what is it?!!!!??! I yelled back I dont know but whatever it is its big!!!
Then I gave it one hard yank and still could not get it to move. I finally yelled back to him that I thought it was a snag. :(
He yells back that its like 50 feet deep where I was at. I said I know its got to be one. So I gave it another pull but could not get it to budge more than a foot or so. I told him its either a snag or a dead body. I began thinking that I could only imagine spending the rest of the day talking to cops telling them about what happened and being on the news. "State worker who calls in sick pulls a dead body out of Monona while fishing" Well finally I put the pole down and the guy says if it is a dead body you can have it. Then he yells out, "Thats really too bad, check out the audience you would of had pulling out a 50 pounder"
I turned around and on Monona terrace looking off the side was over 50 people watching me. Hot chicks on roller blades, bikers, cooks from the hotel, and all kinds of other people. They were all looking at me. :(
So I got the boat motor started and drove to the other side of the snag and began reeling. I reeled and there was nothing there except when my bait came to the surface there was a 50 foot long anchor rope attached to it. :( It must of been hooked to an anchor and either the current or waves was making it float up within 20 feet of the surface. I still cant believe it actually broke off from the anchor.
The rope was brand new and made of very high quality. So I chucked my hat down in the boat and took off as fast as I could to get out of there to avoid anybody possibly identifying me.
At least I caught that pike though.