Flying Pike
Flying Pike – By C. Meyer (Guest Writer)
The battle cry of “Who wants to go fishing” was met with enthusiastic response. So the family piles in the boat in search of fish and adventure. Well as usual the adventure part of the day by far exceeded the fishing as I had an “adventure” with a Northern Pike I will not soon forget, nor will anybody who was in the boat with me either.
It all began “Flying Pike”, in the Eagles Nest Island area of the Chippewa Flowage with me catching about a 20 inch pike on a bucktail. As I am holding the fish above the water to have the kids admire my great catch it gives a little shake and the bucktail comes out and shoots up in the air over my head. Not wanting anyone to get hooked I instinctively give the rod a whip to get the bucktail back into the water and everything is fine right? Well as I am doing this the pike has landed in the water about 4 feet out from the boat and is loading up for an aerial assault on said person the likes of which I have never witnessed or even imagined!!!!! Alright, so I got the bucktail back into the water without any injuries and I am standing in the boat, towards the back and kind of straddling the depth finder and a few lures which were laying out, like a lure bullpen in the back corner of the boat.
You may wonder why the following information relates to the story but take my word it is pertinent. Now I am slightly taller than six foot 2 and have an inseam in the range of 34 inches, and while standing in the boat I am guessing the bottoms of my feet are about 4 to 6 inches above the water line. Now I have had and have seen muskies jump out of the water during a fight and they can reach rather impressive heights, but a new record was about to be set.
Now back to the story. I am estimating there was a time lapse of 1 to 2 seconds from the time the pike hit the water to the time it re-loaded and checked out of the water once again, free of line and lure and drew a bead on an area of my body that up until this time had pretty much been held in sacred esteem by finned creatures. I can tell you right here and now pike have no respect for what other fish hold sacred. Before I knew what happened the pike had shot, and I mean shot, out of the water and headed directly between my legs, grazed the crotch of my shorts, I had the slime to prove it, did a ricochet shot off a tackle box, rod locker and front seat to end up laying in the bottom of the boat right behind me with one eye looking up at me, and I will swear this until I die, a half smile on it’s face that smirked ‘How do you think the kids liked that for a show big man”!!!!! The pike seemed none the less for wear as I reached down and gently placed it in the water, with hands in defensive positions should another attack take place.
After releasing the flying Pike back into it’s watery home I persuaded the family we should go for a little boat ride, as I had done enough fishing that day.
