You won’t be able swing a cat without hitting a “best something of 2011” list this week. So as unoriginal as this might be, I’ll join in.
First, a question for you: What was your best day on the water this year?
Of course, you can’t really answer that without answering a handful of others. After all, what defines “best” in the first place when you’re talking about fishing? Is it the day you caught the most fish, or the biggest?
Is it the day you experienced a kind of fishing you never had, or saw or participated in something particularly memorable?
Is it the day you spent with old friends from your younger days—reliving those days? Or is it when you spent time with someone whose remaining days on the water won’t likely need two hands to count?
I had a little bit of all of these in 2011, and I’d be full of it if I told you I can pick a “best,” so I’ll list my top three if you promise to share yours as well.
Lake Of The Woods Adventure: A few weeks ago, I blogged about my
wife’s unnatural ability tocatch fish. Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also love her for her family cabin on Ontario’s Lake of the Woods. Trips there are always clutch, but this summer all the stars aligned. In one perfect day, I caught my best muskie to date, then later we had a black bear swim a few yards from our boat, caught a limit of walleyes, ate a phenomenal shore lunch on some forgotten island, had our first-ever crayfish boil, and made a trek to a remote corner of the lake to see Indian paintings said to be roughly 900 years old.
Old Friends, Good Times: For the past several years, I’ve been joining a group of old friends from college for a week of fishing on northern Minnesota’s Lake Winnibigoshish. This year’s trip honestly wasn’t much different than all those before it. We pulled ‘crawler harnesses along mid-lake humps by day and gorged on walleye fillets at night. We called each other obscene names, threw hard objects at each other, sliced inconspicuous slits in half-drank beer cans when heads were turned (if you’ve never pulled this on someone, you need to) and generally did our best to get cheap laughs at each others’ expense, as only good friends do. But we also talked about kids and jobs and wives and the lives we’ve built since generally parting ways after school. There’s nothing like it.
Crappies For Grandpa: My grandfather is the person whom I most owe for my love of fishing—and my ability to catch fish. He turned 83 this fall, and it was a birthday we didn’t think he’d see after a diabetic reaction left him in something like a coma for several days late last winter. He’s practically blind and can hardly walk these days. Grandma’s a little more spry, but not much. It was August when I called and asked them to fish with me the next morning, not sure if they’d be up for it. They were. We didn’t catch many crappies that day and the few we put in the livewell were runts, but Grandpa got to hear drag sing and eat fried fish that night. How could I forget that?
So what are your top days of 2011?
Ryan