A Fish Tale

Pat and I have been taking the kids fishing a lot over the last month. It's odd, we have lived here for almost 13 years and we never fished in the area. I think that I could count on one hand all those times, and the St. Croix River is practically out our back door.

Anyway, during our most recent vacation we discussed how we needed to go out fishing some more, relax, and just be outside. And since the fishing was horrible at that cabin, well, we need to get our fix.

Last night we took our son down to the river. Knowing that we wouldn't catch much, just the usual sunfish and small mouth bass. Nothing to bring home to mama. But there was an older gentleman there. He was set up...minnows, leeches, two fishing poles, wading boots, chair, cooler, and a huge fishing net. I wondered what exactly he needed such a large net for simply fishing off the shore.

We chatted with him a bit and he was very serious about his fishing. This guy travels all over Minnesota to fish the various rivers. Very knowledgeable.

So, eventually he asked us what time it was and decided that it was time for him to go home. I glanced over periodically to watch him gather his things and reel in his lines. Lo and behold, I looked and thought he was hooked on a log or something.

He was just letting his line sit at the bottom of the river way out deep so I figured that with all the trees and rocks that we've hooked that he too did the same. NOPE! A fight began.

For about a half hour Pat, myself and our son stood in awe as we watched this man fight this fish. Setting and re-setting his drag, reeling in and pulling the fish, and then allowing this fish to take over. It was quite a learning experience. And exhiliarating at the same time. How I envied him.

All I could think about was how I just lost a whopper of a bass just last weekend because in all my excitement to get him up to shore, the fish got stuck in the weeds and snapped my line. I was just so determined and excited with the fight that I neglected to remember that I must be patient...duh!

We chatted more with him during this fight and he estimated that it was about a five foot long sturgeon or a catfish. The thing just would not surface so watching this mysterious beast play tug of war was agonizing.

FINALLY, we saw the weight peek out of the water about 7 feet off of shore. And then we saw swirls and a HUGE fin. WOW!!! Sorry, I've never caught nothing of this magnitude before, only seen them stuffed.

It took this guy another 15 minutes to finally drag this pig in close enough to use that net that I balked at just an hour before. It was a sturgeon and uuuuugggggglllly! But cool at the same time. It was about 4 feet long, and about as big around as a salad plate. Pat and I estimated that he may have been 20-25 pounds? I was just gawking and even took a picture of it with my cell phone. I don't think I've ever witnessed something like that in my life so it was quite intriguing for me.

Once the guy removed it from the net and removed the hook, he gently pushed it back into the river. Poor fish was really tired from that fight. And what did our son do? As anyone would guess, he casted his line directly in the path that fish was headed determined to catch him. The man told him, "That fish would pull you in with him". Our son of course was not convinced.

After all the excitement, the man left and I settled into my favorite little fishing spot. It was pretty exciting to see such a spectacle but I decided that I would continue doing what I prefer to do. Throw my line out about 6 feet and catch those tiny little bass and those tiny little sunfish. And I did and I came home satisfied. I caught fish and for me, that's all I care about.