VanSickle Outdoors 1 | Page 11

It was in the middle of July and me and some of the other scouts in Troop 54 went camping in Boundary Waters. We go there about every 2 years for a week during the summer. We sleep in a cabin at night then early the next morning we wake up pack the vehicles with our gear and hook the canoe trailer up and drove to the landing dock.

We had been camping for about 2 days already when we decided to head to a different lake to go fish. We paddled our canoes through a narrow creek for about a mile until the creek opened up into a huge lake. We had been fishing for a couple of hours and I had been catching fish after fish after fish. We followed the shore line and decided that in about 30 mins we would be heading back to camp. None of the fish we had been catching were anything huge. It was my goal this year to hook a Northern Pike over 35 inches and reel it into the boat. Then I cast my line and felt a bite on my green and white spoon. This fishing lure was a lure that I found in some souvenir shop and had the logo of some camping resort, It wasn’t some high end, fancy fishing lure that the pros use by any means. When I was fighting this fish I knew instantly that it might have the chance to be the biggest pike I ever caught.

and had the logo of some camping resort, It wasn’t some high end, fancy fishing lure that the pros use by any means. When I was fighting this fish I knew instantly that it might have the chance to be the biggest pike I ever caught. I reeled the fish next to the canoe and then came the tricky part. You had to fling the fish into the canoe in one quick motion and if you messed this up you could risk losing the fish. I flung the fish into the bottom of the canoe and we measured it to be a nice 37 inches.

My dad who was paddling the canoe at the time realized that my fishing lure was having the best of luck and asked if he could use it. I agreed and let him use my pole thinking that it was the fisherman using the pole and not the lur that was on the end of the line. During his first cast he hooked on to a big pike and was fighting it for about 10 mins. I was extra careful pulling this fish into the canoe, because I knew by the way it looked that it could’ve been a fish that was bigger than mine. I threw the fish into the canoe and instantly grabbed the tape measure and was shocked to read that it was a 40 incher!

Realizing that it may have been the lure I quickly grabbed the pole back from my dad and casted hoping that another huge fish would be swimming in the water nearby. As the lure hits the water I thought to myself that I should retie the knot, because the line might be weak from fighting the two big fish, as I was thinking this a pike grabbed my lure. I was bringing it to the side of the boat when, with one giant leap from the water, the pike snapped the line and the fish swam away with the magic fishing lure in its mouth.

Day To Remember