Well, it’s been a stellar year fishing, at least on the ice this year. My son and I have been catching Eyes all season but nothing over 24 inches. That all changed Saturday morning around 6:00am. We were at our winter wonderland near Backus MN fishing in around 20fow about 110 yard from shore catching 14-18 inch eyes. Wondering where all the “hogs” were, I popped a hole about 25 feet from shore in 5fow, put a fathead on a tip-up and dropped her in. I was walking back out to the deeper water where my son was fishing and was about half way back when he yells “FLAG”, “DAD YOU HAVE A FLAG”. I turned around and sure enough the flag was up. I calmly started to walk back as my son raced as fast as he could as he had much further to travel. When I got to the tip-up it was spinning like a helicopter blade. I figured it was a Northern. I yelled back to my son “I’ll let you take him”. I waited for Max(son) to get there, monitoring how much line was being taken. Max got there, bent down and gently lifted the tip up out of the hole-being careful not to lift it too quick or obstruct the motion of the reel. As he was lifting the tip-up out, it started racing again. I told him to grab the line and set it. He did. Then he starts yelling “It’s pulling the line through my hands”, “Help dad”. I grabbed the line and he was not kidding. This thing was a fighter. After 20 seconds or so we had her hitting the ice around the hole and got a glimpse of her. I nearly pooped my pants.
We got her in the hole and I reached down and pulled her out. Max was jumping around and yelling something about his bedroom wall and the taxidermist. I told him that was too expensive, the fish is not quite big enough and I’m hungry.
She measured 27.5 inches. (We did not have a scale)
February 10, 2009 at 4:02 pm
#1261532
The lesson to be learned here is: They are not always where you think they are. This lesson can be applied to any lake and any species. 
A truly great memory that you two will have for the rest of your lives! 
