Forgive me typing so slow, I'm typing with one hand... (all will be revealed later on).
21 July 20006, Friday. It's a great day. I know it's a great day because it's Friday and I am not at work, I am at the Michigan Center DNR Ramp at 0630 launching my boat - with new bunkers I might add.
At 6:35 I'm headed for the channel that ultimately leads to Wolf Lake so I can fish some humps there. As I round the 90 degree bend in the channel I see a giant head sticking up out of the water and it is moving. Only by instinct and with cat like reflexes I hit the air brakes. (some of you may not know as it is a well kept secret that the 2000 Nitro's were equipped with air brakes as an option)
Do you think the guys at work would believe me if I told them I nearly hit a deer while driving my boat? Wouldn't that be a story. I kid you not, one of the biggest does I've ever seen was swimming across the channel. I just sat there idling in awe. It is not every day that you get two simultaneously enjoy multiple aspects of nature and the outdoors. Here I am out on the lake fishing and I get to sit and watch a deer swimming across a channel, it was a thing of beauty. I will however, have to write a letter to the DNR requesting they post deer crossing signs at either end of this channel.
So now I just know it's an awesome day, one of my more memorable... thus far.
I fared pretty well on the Michigan Center chain, boating 16, 17, 17 and 18.5 in LM by noon and have explored the areas I set out to explore. So I make a fateful decision and pack the boat up to head for Big Portage Lake (Jackson).
This seemed to be a good move as I boated a 17 in smallie on my first cast. It was a practice cast with a bandit 100 series crank because I am no good with crankbaits, in fact I have always hated them until a guy named JCheetam suggested I learn to toss a crank instead of a spinner. I guess the smallie was enjoying cruising about 2 feet below the surface in 25 FOW. (shrug) Who am I to argue?
So I spend the next 2 hours tossing my newly purchased Bandit CB"s to 7 to 14 FOW and ensuring I barely tick the top of the weeds. SLAM a 17 in LM hits the 100 series within 10 ft of the boat. Imagine my shock. I boat him and lip him to remove the trebles. It is at this moment I am painfully reminded of that viper bite I had experienced my first day in this boat at this very spot - with one exception. This time it is in my thumb. At this point I am merely functioning on adrenaline and not thinking clearly I have this spiking pain in my thumb and a treble stuck in the outer gill of this beautiful fish. I grab my gerber and just start yanking the treble so I can detach myself from this fish ASAP and get to some help to get this hook out of me. I am sorry and embarrassed to say I yanked so hard I ripped the outer gill off of this guy. >:( :-\' He hit the deck and flopped back into the water. I doubt he survived.
At the time this was the least of my worries, all I could think of was getting to the dock and running my back side to express care. As it turns out the Sheriff's Deputies were launching there boat at the exact time I was pulling up so I enlisted their aid to get my boat up onto the trailer. All the while I've got a bandit 300 series with one treble in my thumb and the other treble with a huge piece of fish flesh still hooked and dangling from my thumb.
This old timer is trailering his boat at the same time and notices the problem. He's staying in the campgrounds and proudly declares his wife is a dentist and she'll fix me right up. She could have been Mother Theresa herself at this point, I wouldn't have cared, I just wanted the thing out of me. The man was kind enough to drive my Jeep and Trailer to the campgrounds with me riding shotgun.
Now I don't know how, but news of my plight made it to the groundskeeper of the park and he comes screeching up on two wheels and dragging behind him the biggest first aid kit you've ever seen in your life. Neighboor #2 sees the commotion and apparently had already heard all about it and happily offered his tiny wire cutters so I could snip the treble and remove the hook.
So here it is, I bite my lip, snipped the shaft off the hook and with every bit of grit I have in me I begin to rip the hook through. It should be noted that at this point the barb is still buried somewhere deep inside my flesh. It's at this time I notice that the brave dentist is about to pass out and is getting the help of neighboor #3 to get to her chair. I'm thinking !she's! about to pass out?? I'm the one in pain here!!
So picture this. I got this groundskeeper dude, neighboor #2, old timer and neighboor #3 all standing around me with different parts of first aid materials taking turns doing their part. One with peroxide, one with alcohol swabs and the other stabilizing my thumb, all the while a campfire going right beside us.
(Anyone seen Braveheart where they remove the arrows and sear the wound?)
As I'm ripping this barb through and throbbing with pain I thought to myself, "self, a bottle of whiskey would have been just the ticket right about now." Now, if you've never had the pleasure of tearing a hook out of your flesh, you must know what kind of rush of relief and feeling of ten tons of bricks falling off your back the minute that barb pops through and the metal slides out of you.
So, it's over, the dentist is still shaking her head in disbelief. I'm feeling like a million bucks, shake everyone's hand as they pat me on the back and just like a bull rider I pick myself up, get the boat back to the launch and head back out on the lake.
It should be noted at this point that the Deputies were rather concerned and insisting they call an ambulance the whole time I was down at the launch, hook in thumb. So, you had to see the look on their faces and watch them nearly steer right into another boat as they did a double take in disbelief when I passed them headed back to my spot.
I spent the rest of the day fishing a frog on top of slop/pads and experienced another first in my life. My very first bass on a frog. For the next two hours right up until dusk I hit every pad there is on the lake and had a blast.... nothing like a LM blowing up on your frog.
A great end to a roller coaster day..
B
Ouch...Chalk this up as another experience in the life of a seasoned fisherman...On a serious note though, what color was the bandit ;D
Yeah... and how much did you weigh???
350 lbs!
Yikes! We need a bigger basket!!!! ;D
That was 350 in fish story lbs :D
B