January 31 – with a high of 20F and the wind blowing out of the North, you wouldn’t think it would be a very nice day to take the boat out on Lake Superior and try jigging deep for some lake trout on the bobbing sticks. But for the die-hards that do it, it was a perfect day to be out there.
We got out there dropped anchor, and watched the 30lb test stainless steel wire spool off our hoops as our jigs dropped to the bottom. As soon as we got down to the bottom, we had fish on. It was one of those days.
The wind would pick up and we would think about heading in soon, then it would die down and we would stick it out a little longer. It was gusting when our anchor stopped holding us in position and we were now drifting. Dropping my line back down, I stopped momentarily to let it go tight, only it didn’t just go tight, it started pounding hard. Something big had taken my jig while it was dropping down the water column. I don’t think it made it too far down either.
I worked it up the water column slowly and carefully but wasn’t gaining too much because of the heavy head shakes at the other end. This fish would just pull too hard and the wire was slipping through my fingers. Slowly I gained on it a little at a time, pausing every so often as it just pounded on the end of my line keeping me from hoisting it up any further.
As it approached a depth at which we could see it, all I could see was some white flashing off the belly. I was thinking the whole time it was a real decent fish. Then I got the head up to the top and it looked like a pig floating in the water. It didn’t even fit in the landing net. We scooped it into the boat. Forty-one inches. Another epic day in the books for sure!
