The fish are lucky when I’m on the water

I’m a pretty poor outdoorsman. It’s an odd realization considering everyone else in my family is a pretty avid outdoorsman whether it be hunting or fishing. I still deer hunt but I am far from an accomplished outdoorsman.

This weekend my family had the guys’ weekend where a bunch of my uncles and their friends travel up to Lake Holcombe to fish for musky. The stipulation to be invited to the weekend is, you must be 21 years old and you must be a family member or close friend to my uncle.

I have only been coming to the “Musky Hunt” as it is called for six or seven years. There are guys who were participating in this event when the first George Bush was in office. All these guys are relatively experienced fishermen and have poles and lures and boats that they show up with.

The kicker is, I don’t fish, like, at all. So when I go up there, I bring myself and cooler full of adult beverages and I enjoy my relaxation.

Instead of fishing, some other guys who aren’t big into fishing and I find alternative ways to spend our time like watching old movies in the cabin, sitting around the campfire or heading to the local bars to watch football.

The weekend is one of relaxation and excitement all at the same time. However, I did not get near the excitement that other guys on the trip experienced. I had two uncles and a cousin catch a musky, with the biggest of the bunch being a 48.5-inch fish.

Musky on Holcombe need to be 50 inches to keep, so that’s about as close as you can get to a trophy fish without the fish actually being deemed a keeper.

Ironically, we had guys fishing from the dock at the cabin throughout the weekend and the exact pole and sucker I had used was the pole and sucker that caught a fish no more than two hours after I was done using it.

I had left to help livestream the Colby football game in St. Croix Falls and when I got back that night, I was notified that the musky latched onto the sucker after I had left. The instance was just the latest event in a lifetime full of fishing dissatisfaction. I’ve caught pan fish before but never anything bigger than a bluegill or sunfish. I’ve tried to get into it more as I’ve learned to become more patient, but at this time, I don’t have the time or patience to become a better fisherman.

The weekend was much more than that though, as my brothers and I went golfing, and I helped cut down some trees and brush that were creeping into an unwanted area near the cabin. We also do a fish boil every year in which everyone brings something to contribute to the pot. This year, the pot contained potatoes, corn on the cob, crab legs, scallops, lobster pieces, multitudes of shrimp, calamari and various sausage flavors. The meal is probably the best one of the year.

Speeding

Through

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ife