Fishin' On Michigan

On short notice I contacted my dear friend Courtney to see if she'd be busy this past Monday night... to which she replied that she was free so I decided to go visit her! I milked cows Monday morning, prepared my things and left town around 1p.m. and so began my 24-hour adventure (for after coffee with Courtney on Tuesday morning I was back on the road and home by 1p.m.)!

Courtney's dad, Kevin, was going fishing with his friend Dan and invited us to join them. They told me that the lake was on the rough side. We sped out over the water about 11-13 miles from the shore. The ride out was like something you'd experience at an amusement park. We had to hold on tight! Once we slowed down to fish the boat still rocked and the guys were contemplating which direction to steer so that there would be less movement aboard. It seemed perfectly normal to me to feel the boat rocking constantly due to the irregular upheaval of water, for I had no other experience to compare with, and luckily I didn't get sea-sick. 

 Courtney holding on tight during the ride!

We had Dan try to take a picture of us while we were jolting across the water. We ended up in stitches, laughing hysterically, for every time he'd count to 3 and was about to snap a shot we'd fly over a wave and crash back down causing Dan to have to juggle the phone and start all over again!

Once we were out over about 150-250 feet of water it was time to fish. It was quite a science really and I enjoyed watching the calculated decisions of the What, Where, When and How that catching a fish required. For the most part Dan was in charge of setting up and casting lines while Kevin steered the boat, making sure the lines didn't get tangled. I believe they had six lines out. It reminded me of how farmers have to steer their tractor while looking out the back window constantly to make sure everything is in order.

There were handy-dandy pole holders all over the boat so we simply had to watch and wait. It was a good thing too, since the poles where pretty heavy. When a fish was caught the pole would start wiggling back and forth. Since the boat was being tossed more than usual it made the poles wiggle more than usual though there were no fish on the lines. Courtney was got the guys riled up a few times at with false alarm!

Courtney got to steer the boat for a few minutes but I was distracting her, she ended up going South instead of South East and for fear of the lines tangling her dad went back to his post of manning the wheel.

So Courtney and I took more pictures!!! =D

We had gone 'out to sea' in the evening we'd spent a good 3 or 4 hours on the water and hadn't caughta single fish when 8 o'clock rolled around. 

In spite of the lack of fish we enjoyed watching an orange ball of sun set over the land and I wish I had brought my own camera or maybe some pencils, pastels and paper as it was incredibly inspiring to behold the beauties of the water. It was great to watch the shore line change from buildings and city to a teal/blue line of horizon hardly visible from our position on the lake.

We watched the scape change from a line of land protruding from the water to meet the sky, a few distinct sculptures to confirm the presence of a city to the eye, to a casual stretch of yellow dots casting their glow in the darkness of night signifying the existence of civilization in the distance. We had the pleasure of watching a moon rise out over the water. Judging by a slight lack of distinct edge on the left side of the moon it was almost full. It was to be a blue moon. It cast a streak of warm hue across the great lake, just as bright as the one the sun had left on the water a little while before.

Finally at about 8:10 we caught a fish! They let me reel it in! The poles were pretty heavy and with the water and a fish in tow there was enough resistance to require quite an effort.  Boy it's a lot more work than I had imagined it would be, and very rewarding!!!

Courtney caught the next one... but the boat was moving in such a volatile manner and the light was fading the picture was a bit hard to catch. In all we caught six fish. I'm pretty sure they were all Chinook salmon. 

Here are short clips of Courtney and I throwing our fish back into the lake!!! =D It was pretty epic!!! ;)

 Here's a picture of Courtney's dad reeling one in. Blurry, but picturesque. =)

Needless to say, it was a really fun time! Big lake fishing is not quite like anything you're gonna do on a normal fishing trip. It's some serious stuff!!! I was glad for the new experience and look forward to doing it again!