Get hooked on Fishing!

 Myself, nephew Mike and
Nikolai survived our first
trip fishing last Tuesday,
June 28 on South Twin lake.


By Allan Olson
If it happened to me, it could truly happen to you. What I’m about to share, is very important for those who venture in the great outdoors on a boat with fishing in mind. It might seem a little scary at first, but I’m truly okay and recovering quickly.
It finally happened, I ventured out to take my boat out for the first time on Tuesday night, our target destination was South Twin Lake in Beltrami County. I had heard that supposedly the crappies were biting, I had a boat, a fishing license and two eager partners. More on the first adventure just a bit later.
The next night our second fishing trip, things were a little scarier for us.
I launched the boat on Pimushe Lake, on late Wednesday evening, we were told that we might snag a couple walleye’s and it’s a good crappie lake. So we decided why not give it a shot. The wind was a little rougher and after about 30 minutes of fishing with one little perch landed again by my nephew we decided to finally move. I started the boat and moved about 20 feet closer to the weeds. My nephew was casting and there I was minding my own line, just relaxing in the summer fresh breeze when it struck. My nephew was on for the fight of his life, he was struggling to keep his pole in his hand and feet in the boat and after a tremendous battle he finally was bringing it closer to the boat, this mighty fish was thrashing around like crazy, but he was hooked well with that Rapala and wasn’t shaking it loose. In the spirit of things I moved in to help dipping my bucket in the water trying to capture that beast in the five gallon pail. The beast thrashing mightily and refused to cooperate, its teeth were bared and the next thing I know I felt the bite, the bite of the hook that is. All that thrashing around and the beast managed to get me hooked as well and all that thrashing around was making the barb sink deeper. I helped land the beast, got my hands around its tremendous girth and instructed my nephew to cut the hook from its mouth. We finally got a good luck at this behemoth of a fish and declared it was a 60 pound pike. I dug at my hand for a bit and finally decided to head to shore, I needed a little help removing the thing from my hand. I was just grateful that 60 pound pike narrowly missed me with its gnashing teeth.
It happened to me......
The Truth:
Okay so perhaps a little of that was far-fetched, the northern didn’t weigh anything close to 60 pounds, probably more like two or three, my nephew wasn’t hanging for dear life, but I did try to get the fish in the bucket before the bite of the barb got me instead. After landing the fish, my nephew was able to cut the hook out of its lip so it quit biting into me. After the fish was removed and the line was cut I dug around on my hand trying to get the hook out, but it wasn’t working and I really didn’t want to make it worse. I sent my wife a message, letting her know I needed her help and we would be home soon. I unloaded the boat and she was just getting home with the kids from vacation bible school and I was going to leave for the emergency room instead. She looked at my hand and asked if I was going in. I said, yes, “hang on I’m going with,” she said. Amused, that we weren’t taking her or one of the kids in for some broken bone or something of the like. So off we went to the ER, I drove myself to and from the ER and the brief time in the ER I learned how to get a hook out of my hand for next time. My wife did record the whole thing for all our friends on the internet. This was my first trip to the ER as a patient in almost 19 years, so hopefully it will be that or more before I visit again as a patient.
South Twin
Prior to our first fishing expedition on Tuesday night, I had scoped out the lake a couple times checking to see what it would be like if the wind was blowing hard and found that it seems to have really good protection. We dropped the younger kids off at vacation bible school, headed back home to load up and go. We had barely left the yard and I asked Nikolai if he grabbed the life jackets, he forgot so we turned around for home grabbed the jackets and left.
We launched the boat successfully, after I made sure I could get it started, (FYI I’m a bit of a greenhorn when it comes to this, usually I’m the passenger and not the driver/owner/operator.) I got the vehicle parked and the boys, Nikolai, my nephew Mike and I headed out. Now we have no sophisticated radar sonar missile fish detecting equipment so it’s all old school for us. We headed to the opposite corner of the lake found a spot to fish and set anchor. We fished in the spot for just a little bit and my nephew caught a little itsy bitsy sunfish – game on. For the next hour the two boys tried to snag one of those tiny little fish that they could see swimming by their hooks but no luck. I finally persuaded them to move, so we did. We found another spot, and my nephew caught a crappie, a little bit later and I too landed a big ole crappie. We tried a couple other spots before finally pulling up anchor about 9 p.m. and headed home.
On Saturday, we took a trip to Bagley, for some horse riding, the second trip this week for the kids as our horse friend picked them up on Thursday for the day and they enjoyed several hours of horsing around by themselves. That evening, the boys and I along with my niece Angela took the boat out again, this time to North Twin, there we managed to find a little hole and snagged several bluegills for the pail. Although the truth of it is, my nephew and niece managed to bring home all six, of the 10 total we landed and Nikolai and I combined for a big fat zero.
Sunday, we headed north to my wife’s families cabin for a family gathering, which included a pot luck, hayrides and fireworks. Late that evening, we headed to my folks were we spent most of Monday, before heading home well before dark, after celebrating my dad’s birthday. In all it was a fun and busy week and the next couple look to be just as crazy.
Enjoy your summer, and be sure to snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.




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