My mom and sister Becky rolled into town yesterday right on schedule. As planned, today I took Becky fishing with hopes she could stick her first muskellunge. While she once fly fished a lot, almost taking the trout bum route that I took many years ago, she took the all-American route instead and got married, worked and raised a family and hasn’t fished seriously in eons. As you would expect, Becky was very excited to be on the water again.
What was funny to me was when I handed her my Winston 7-weight with an oversized musky streamer attached. She looked at me and asked, “I thought musky were like pickerel? Are they that much bigger?”
I thought she was pulling my leg and simply answered, “Yes”.
But Becky wasn’t kidding. She apparently hasn’t paid a whole lot of attention to Granny’s and my new life in Wisconsin because when she went tight with her first musky, she seemed a bit shocked. By musky standards she was hooked up with a baby about 29” but any musky can rock your world. And especially because she said the last fish she caught was a 13” pickerel.
I’m pleased to say Becky fought this fish like a champ and I’m proud to have guided her into her first musky on her first attempt. It was beautiful sparkly green one with faint bars on the side. Everything about her first musky was absolutely immaculate.
Becky caught her musky less than 30 minutes into her first musky session. As much as I wanted her to catch another, maybe even several, deep inside I didn’t want her to head back home delusional thinking musky fishing is easy. Well, we don’t have to worry about that at all. Over the next five hours of casting, Becky saw exactly zero more muskies. Furthermore, our weather went south creating some true suffering at times with rain and cold.
It’s been years since Becky and I have fished together and I’m happy to say it was a memorable one. Not only did she catch her first musky, but I was able to show her one of my favorite places since I’ve move here to Wisconsin. And best of all, we had the place entirely to ourselves!
Geoff, it’s probably a good thing she took the route she did. The thought of two of you out there is slightly overwhelming.
Jeff,
That is a perfect family reunion!
Tad