Ttwenty-nine years ago, in 1995, Max Johnson and I took our wives on a trip to the Bahamas where he and I fished for bonefish on fly rods.
This was our first chance to employ a fly rod with this wary species. The bones are often found in a meter of water and are very skittish. Bonefish is also known as one of the fastest swimmers in the ocean. It can be really challenging to get close enough to throw a fly at them.
But Johnson and I had a good guide, and under his guidance during the first two days we caught several fish that ranged from 1.5 pounds to maybe 3 pounds. In the world of bony fish, a 4-pound fly rod is an achievement.
The third morning found us wading along the lithe sandy bottom just beyond the mangroves as the tide receded. There was a current of water flowing from the brush and our guide said that the fish that had entered the mangroves to feed on the crabs would migrate to deeper water soon after the tide dropped.
Sure enough, as we stood there, we saw a shadow coming towards us and the guide shouted, “Throw it, throw it!” The massive fish swam right at me and looked like a fat, silver carp. Max was getting a little tangled up, so I made a miniature 25-foot cast right at the fish. When he saw the fly, he turned around and inhaled it. I set the hook and the fish screamed like a rocket.
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My reel was loaded with 25 meters of fly line and I tied 200 meters of backing to it with a nail-shaped knot I had never used before, so when the line shot out I was worried that the knot would go through the rod guides. To my surprise, when I looked down, the knot was already untied and the bobbin was getting smaller.
And quickly!
So I ran after the fish to avoid getting tangled. There was strenuous white sand at the bottom and I was running like crazy. I managed to get some line back and after a 10 minute fight with a few runs we caught a fish. Our guide was as excited as I was and said it weighed 13 pounds!
Over the course of the following years, I only met one or two men who claimed it was such a immense bone-in fish, and since then I have always considered this bone-in fish to be the fish of my life.
Now rapid forward through 29 years of fishing, during which I have caught, among other things, a 9-pound, 25-inch largemouth bass, several 30-inch walleyes, a 45-inch muskie on the fly, and at least three northern pike longer than 43 inches.
At the top of them all
But on September 1, while fishing in Canada, I beat them all.
My cousin Steve Voss and I were part of a group of eight men who booked a trip to Cottage on the Cree River in far north Saskatchewan. The cabin was located at the mouth of the Cree River at Lake Wapato, which flows north into Lake Athabasca.
It is full of zander and pike. Fishing is not allowed at the lodge, except for smaller zander, which can be enjoyed for lunch on land. Over the next three days, each of us caught several dozen zanders. About five pike over 40 inches were caught in the group.
On the last and fourth mornings, Voss and I continued fishing with guide Chip Cromarty, who knows the area intimately. After spending the morning fishing for walleye, I asked Chip if he would let us try to catch a immense northern pike.
He said sure. It was about five miles to the southwest end of the lake and we started by fishing a few rocky spots. Steve and I caught six or seven pike in a few hours of spooning or trolling – the largest was probably 33 inches.
Then, throwing a yellow Dardevle with red dots, I hit it strenuous and got stuck. The fish moved steadily to the left, without the normal head shaking typical of smaller fish.
Chip immediately said, “I think that’s a big fish!”
I increased the resistance a bit; I was using an older Garcia baitcasting reel with 30-pound braid and 60-pound homemade fluorocarbon leader. I purposely bent the rod a lot to see if I could get the fish towards us, but it didn’t work.
Then he came to the surface and threw the front half out of the water and I said, “Holy…! Have you seen the size of this thing?”
After about five minutes she started to get tired. As I was walking her to the boat, Chip grabbed her with his bare hands and grunted, pulling her into the boat. He held the fish upright and I measured it with a kayak paddle and a ruler – 49 inches and I did not squeeze the tail lobes together.
Wow!
I estimate it weighed 30 pounds, but it wasn’t as fat as some muskies I’ve seen, so I conservatively estimate it at 28 pounds. It took her a few seconds to recover, and when Chip released her, she swam down strenuous and out of sight. I hope she’s still swimming as you read this.
I have met several Florida anglers who have caught a bonefish larger than 13 pounds, but I have yet to hear of a larger pike among my friends. I’m sure bigger pikes have been caught before, but for me this is my fresh “fish of a lifetime”.
Lee Kernen of Sun Prairie is a former DNR fisheries chief in Wisconsin.
