Fish that have taken you the most work to land...

[OldTimer]

About 30 years ago I took the eager young son (14), of family friend, fishing for smallmouth on a Muskoka lake. It was late September and the weather was a bit cool, and overcast, with a fair chop on the water.

The boat we took out that day was 14’ Springbok aluminum with a 5.5 hp Evinrude.

We both had dressed warm, with wool jackets. I wore my steel toed safety boots because they were waterproof.

We visited a few spots around the lake and had caught a few, but nothing real big….. so I decided we’d troll for a while with larger lures to see if we could get something better. Nada……

The young lad loved it all, but really wanted to drive the boat. So on our last leg home I told him he could drive as we trolled through the smaller bay to the cottage. I sat in the front and trolled a small spoon on my new ultra-light setup.

As we near the dock about 60 yards out - WHAM! …….I hook into a NICE bass and stand up to set the hook while watching it doing summersaults out the back of the boat. I ask the boy to stop the boat so we can land the fish. Instead he guns the engine and I, and my rod/reel do a dive into the lake.

I come up to the surface to see the boat, which has now stalled, coasting towards the dock. I’m in about 8 to 10 feet deep water without a life jacket finding it almost impossible to swim with the heavy jacket and safety boots on. Meanwhile – I’ve got the rod – and I’m still hooked up to the fish which has circled me - twisting the line around my legs. So here’s me – get gulp of air – go to the bottom, push off towards the shore………repeat……..repeat……….repeat………… finally I get shallow enough that I can actually stand on bottom with my head above the surface, and while wheezing - get untangled, and then reel in the fish – a nice 4+ pounder Smallmouth.

The boy paddled to the dock no problem. Safe and sound.

After getting dried off I was fine, so was my gear.

By the way……….. I did release the fish………………. But I swear it was grinning as it swam away.

Cheers,

OldTimer