First time fishing with my brand new Daughter-in-Law
By Wayne Morgenthaler
I should have taken the family out for Friday night fish fry as it was windy out. I decided that Friday night would be better spent fishing with my son and brand new daughter-in-law, Kali, fishing for northerns and bass near Hayward, Wisconsin.
A retired friend of mine let us use one of his old row boats on this heavily covered lily pad lake. The boats are always turned upside down so that we do not have to bail the water out. We started out by tipping one the largest row boats over to give us wiggle room. When my six foot son and I tipped the boat over, there was a two foot garter snake crawling around. My daughter in law saw it slithering around, and jumped back in my van. She said she wouldn’t come out until we got the snake out and checked to see if anymore were in the boat. We tipped the boat on its side and the snake left without any problems.
As we were putting in the gear, a small brown leaping lizard appeared in the back of this boat. We tried to catch the little guy but he hid up at the front of the boat by the anchor. We assured her that everything was okay and to get in the boat.
We had gone about 200 yards when a big northern hit my son’s lethal weapon tipped with a crawdad. The pike was the biggest one he ever had on. We were able to get the big fish to the surface, when my son said he didn’t have a leader on. I broke the news that we had forgotten the net too. My lady guest reminded us that we were not very well prepared. I guessed the fish to be between 15 and 20 pounds. I told him we would be better off to try to beach the pike rather than me trying to grab him behind the eyes.
Then my sweet petite gal in the back gave out a big scream. I thought the fish scared her as it was surfacing and splashing near her. The next thing I know someone streaks by me from the front of the boat. Kali is on a mission to get to her husband in the back of the boat. She then stands up on the back seat with my son who is still fighting the biggest northern of his life. Kali is yelling “SNAKE”! I thought it was the little lizard until I turned around and saw the three foot garter snake right behind me. I have no love for snakes and jumped up. There we were all three standing up at the back of the boat. My son had his protective arm around his wife, and playing the trophy fish with the other arm.
I grabbed the oars and started rowing for dear life to shore in the standing position. Kali grabbed a fishing pole and started swatting at the snake so he would stay at the front of the boat. Once near shore Kali jumped on the dock and headed for the van. Kevin now had an opportunity to land the fish with both arms on the fishing pole.
The northern could not take any more of this and took off for deeper water along with my son’s lure. The line eventually snapped and he was heart-broken. Kali was back at the van and accusing us of lying to her about the boat being snake proof. I finally convinced her of getting in another boat after we did a very thorough check. The rest of the night turned out to be one of the best fishing nights I can remember. Kevin caught two 36 inch northerns, a 32 inch one, and a 27 incher. Also, he caught a 4 pound largemouth bass.
I told Kali to cast by an old beaver house that had grass on it, as it is a good fishing spot. Wouldn’t you know it but a loon was sleeping on it and she woke him up. He came off like being shot out of a cannon right towards the boat. Needless to say she was shook up enough and did not sleep so well that night. I think this is a fishing trip the three of us will remember for a while. Kali was a super sport and now we have a family memory.