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Its hard to soar like an OneidaEagle when your Flying with a Skillet007
While Skillet & I attended the Michigan Crappie Liars club, I can not say that either of us were NOT envious of everyone. Our Schedules just didn't work out this time, and to be frank, we were both probably, but un-spoken a bit disappointed, we could not attend the entire event.
However, a SILVER LINING was shown to both of us, his schedule is similar to my schedule. So we made ad-hoc plans to go fishing. They failed Sunday, they failed Monday, but TUESDAY, was a cosmic alignment, and away we went.
We were going to either Holland of Muskegon for some Silver Frankenstein Crappie aka Salmon. After we were in the truck, discussed traffic, we opted for Holland, as 5pm Traffic to get up 131 to Muskegon would suck. Kevin, was happy to go, skipped food and drink, but I am always armed, with PMGT. Armed with left over grilled Salmon, and 2 flasks of PMGT, and I loaned him my back up Engel Tumbler <-- (See Steve, I got Engel in my post. :ThumbsUp ) away we went.
I still have to say, having some one who knows what they are doing is weird when launching or retrieving a boat. I am so used to doing it by myself. Kevin was a great help, even if it was kind of weird feeling.
The first sing that this was going to be memorable, was the laughing before we even left the driveway. I had to tell Kevin he drives like old people ______, (<-- Insert your own slow driver insult) cuz it seemed to take FOREVER for him to get to the house, to go........ that and the girl in the short skirt, walking along the channel, smiling at one of us. Kevin said it was him, but I had to remind him that it was me. Why me, well, Ginger, it does the body good, so it was me, not Kevin, but she may had been older then we thought, due to the distance, so maybe it was Kevin she was smiling at?
As we motor through the no wake, there are about 12 large boats all staging, it looked like the start of a league of some sort. Sure enough 6pm, they all took off. We took off as well. What was funny, and they had to be wondering, why is this little boat passing us? Well, the big lake was FLAT. It was/is a rare day that its this flat.
We get to about 95 foot of water, stop, drop, and troll. So Kevin is watching, and keeping track of stuff so I could get every thing deployed. 1st Rigger Set, Second Rigger Set, 1 Slide Diver Set, 2nd Slide Diver in the water and started and the Rigger goes off, Hand Kevin the Slider Pole I'm deploying, and grab the rigger rod, reel up the slack, and (This is IMPORTANT) I SET THE HOOK. Then hand the rod to Kevin.
After a brief amount of time, we net a nice 30+ inch Steel head. After the circus was calm, it was break time for some PMGT. Some hydration, and we then got the rest of the lines out, and the rigger reset. Kevin cranked up the hand rigger, and you could tell the next words out of his mouth, were "You need ELECTRIC", to which I replied, I also need a fatter check book. :Rofl When all said and done, We look back and we are being followed by one of the bigger boats. Hey Kevin, check it out, they are following us, they think we know what we are doing.......:yikes
We went out to about 145/150 foot of water, then turned back in towards the area we got the first hit. It was awhile longer and after swapping out some tackle, the other rigger 90 foot down, eating some grilled Salmon, relaxing talking about gear, the other rigger goes off. Grabbed that pole, reel up the slack, and (This is IMPORTANT) I SET THE HOOK. I hand it to Kevin, an he got to fight a great King.
What was funny, and I wish I could have seen the look on his face, while it was close tot the boat, it decided it wanted to go DOWN, and it went. I'm bent over the motor, in the Mercury Humping Net Position, with the net, barking out instructions best I can to help Kevin, steer it as best he could away from the rigger lines it was about to wrap itself around. We probably had a better chance of just jumping in the water and trying to talk it into the live well at this point. We get it back around and in the net, and into the boat.
It makes its way into the livewell. to boot, it spanned the entire length of the livewell. It was BIG, Kev is all SMILES, and we are being followed by not only 1, but 2 boats now. Then I got to fish with 7 Year old Kevin. Why do I say that? Well, every 3 to 7 minutes he opens the livewell, looks at it and says (______ That's BIG) <---- G Rated Friendly post, enter your own expletive. (Get it G Friendly, awe come one that was a good joke. Which reminds me, SLAB took a photo of the Legend OE & Himself, I have yet to see that online Slab????? Anyway, then he looks at it and the expletives are fading, and the questions start.
Kev: How big is that?
OE: I don't know, I just eat them.
Couple minutes later, he opens the livewell.
Kev: How long you think it is?
OE: I don't know, but its HUGE, and I have dinner for a few days.
Couple minutes later, he opens the livewell.
Kev: That's a BIG Fish, what do you think it weighs.
OE: I'm not sure, but we are eating good the next few days.
Rinse Repeat, for a bit longer, and then the conversation, to "How do you do this by yourself? which lead to a whole separate conversation
So we get every thing reset, and its conversation, time take time, useless fact time, like my average year prior was 2.5 fish a trip, grilling smoking Salmon, Blackend Walleye, what do these Diver Rods look like when they get hit? Well that was an easy answer, they bend over even farther, and look like they are going to break.
Well Kevin got to see it, the rod next to him went HAMMER DOWN, and he grabbed it, and was fighting the fish. He is working it in, and has 128 feet of line on the line counter, an then it decided it wanted to go to Chicago, and in a matter of about 2 or 3 seconds, went from 128 feet of line, to 176 feet of line away from the boat. Well with that length, I thought to myself, VIDEO, I can take a video of Kev fighting a big Franken Crappie, and post online, I grabbed my phone, and started a video. I'm razzing Kevin to catch that fish, and we are laughing when then suddenly it was gone. His eyes looked like saucers, and some expletives were uttered out LOUD, and on video. So I cant share that video. He then looks at me and ask's how the HE Double Hockey Sticks does it get off like that, and I asked him one simple question. You set the hook?
At that point, I was on the boat floor laughing. It was most likely a BIGGER King that what was in the box already, heck it may not have even FIT, but we will never know, because he forgot to SET THE HOOK. <-- That is my story. Now his may be slightly different, but every rod I grabbed, and handed to Kevin, we caught the fish, Kevin grabbed a Rod by himself, and lost it, So I say he forgot toe set the hook.
We called it a night, and started pulling lines. While getting the lines & tackle put away, Kevin was putting some spoons and such away, and I am burning in line from the last down rigger. It is dark, nothing feels abnormal for Salmon gear, and when I lift the rigger line out of the water and into the boat, there is a small Mud Chicken (Lake Trout) attached and it whacks Kevin right in the side of the head, and slides down the side of him to the floor. Before I could apologize, Kevin is laughing his butt off, which in turn made me laugh. Then we wondered hos long he was attached getting dragged around.
We get back, clean them, guts in the bucket to be buried later today, while rinsing Kevin says on fillet is enough, but he got one of each, to try and test, King, Steelhead, and a Mud chicken/Greaser.
The lake was calm, and the water in the photos are not standard, flat days like this are usually rare for me.
Kevin is probably at work now dragging butt, I think bed time was midnight, or a bit after wards for both of us. BUT we got some Franken Crappie (Salmon) to show for it.
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