Ramble on-Just another Fishing story

I had been looking forward to going ice fishing, the ice had just come on poor farm lake. The early ice fishing their was usually great. I think I had my equipment prepared a month ahead of time waiting for this ice to form.

Dave my best friend didn’t do much ice fishing. The fact is I don’t think he had ever been ice fishing in his life. Being at the house the night before he saw me getting ready for the next day. “Can I come?” he asked. I said “sure, that would be great”.

The next morning Dave showed up nice and early and we were ready to go. I had purchased the bait ahead of time, before I knew he was coming along, but I thought it should be plenty. I bought more than I really needed.

Out on the ice I set out 2 tip ups and got a line down and noticed Dave was having some problems getting set up. The line he was using looked heavy enough to be a clothes line rope. His hooks were so rusty you could hardly see the barbs on them anymore. I said, “that’s no good!, why don’t you use some of my equipment?” He declined and said it was fine he would get by.

I had a couple flags and no fish, they didn’t take it, but did a great job of stealing the bait. Dave had moved into deeper water ( a lot deeper ) Too deep out their I told Him. It didn’t make any difference Dave is hard of hearing so I don’t know if he heard me or not or if it would have mattered.

Well what do I know, not much I guess.

The next thing I see is Dave giving a hard jerk on his pole. It bent momentarily then went straight. Seeing as this is a family site I will not quote the words that followed. This repeated it self several times as this fish kept stealing his bait which now we are very low on. Dave walked back over to me holding in his hands a broken rusty hook. “Broke my damn hook” he said. I dug in my box and got Dave a good hook. I told him we had 2 minnows left-they were dead but he was welcome to them. The next thing I know Dave is standing over his hole yelling for help, his pole lying on the ice and his line gripped tightly in his hands. I grabbed the gaff hook and headed for the deeper water to help him.

The rest is history-He caught the biggest walleye I have ever seen come out of that lake -13Lbs 8 oz.

I don’t remember how many fish I caught that day, if any. But I will remember that one fish Dave caught forever.