On a magical morning recently, while long line trolling, I got nice strike. After retrieving about 25 feet of the 100 plus feet of line I had out, the fish jumped out of the water. My immediate thought was I had hooked a 
small mouth bass and not a walleye. I continued to retrieve my line until the fish was along side the boat, and to my surprise, it was indeed a 16” walleye 
. As I turned to get the net, the water beside the boat exploded, my rod doubled over and the drag on the reel screamed. By the time I recovered and worked my supper from far under the boat back to the surface and waiting net, my walleye had mystically transformed itself into a 9 pound northern and my diner was nowhere to be seen. It all worked out well for the magical walleye 
, as I released the northern after getting him free of the net and hook. Most certainly, as soon as he was out of my sight, he metamorphosed back into that 16” walleye. After all, what self respecting walleye would want to go through life as a slimmer? 
July 11, 2008 at 2:58 pm
#1259488