Lake Nettogami 2009

Well indeed the story begins..."On a dark stormy night..." as so it was the night which found my son Jake and I just completing a 2 mile drift along the shore of Lake Nettogami casting for walleye and pike. I had caught a few small pike, but Jake was whimsically talking about going to Lake Haultain next year as he had not caught any big fish thus far and he was feeling a little frustrated. Looking through the rain across a lake that had 2' foot whitecaps I said, "Jake, we are going to get aggressive with our fishing strategy tonight, but what we are about to do you have to promise never to do alone..." He eagerly agreed, we loosened our boot laces, and headed to a place on the lake where the full weight of the lake was being pressed by the strong wind against a dropoff. Upon arriving Jake hopped up on the front bench, riding the boat on the whitecaps like a surfer on his board, casting his black Fish Tek MSB towards the shore while I attempted to keep the boat into the wind and off the rocky shallows. I was struck how skillful Jake had become as I watched him casting his Abu Garcia C4 with great determination into a wind driven rain, grimacing as he set his hook on the first cast, followed by a grin of relief and joy as he exclaimed "fish on!"....and so it was he had caught a 42" Northern Pike. After a dicey 10 minute fight, given the wind, waves, dangerously close proximity to the shore, and successful release of the fish I was pretty whipped, but Jake wanted to do it again....so we did....and he caught another 42" pike....the same exact sequence of events from the previous 15 minutes transpired again...and he wanted to do it again...so we did....and this time he caught a 44" pike. This fish was huge and filled the entire width of the boat....he wanted to do it again...so we did...but thankfully the bite was over as I was whipped, covered with Pike slime, fish blood, my blood and a deep sense of satisfaction that "Dad's aggressive plan" paid off....

The Wilkes and Shumans were great fishing partners on this trip to Nettogami. We figured to have caught over 300+ fish. The euchre games and episodes involving the Canadian badger will conjure up laughs for many years. The flight out was an adventure as our pilots skillfully dodged a series of thunder storms. We flew out at 3:00PM and was back home in Honeoye Falls at 3:30 AM.