Mitch Wins Gold...

No, I'm not talking about the gold medals everyone is watching on tv right now, but gold in the form of a first muskie!  While this fish wasn't the largest guy I've ever seen in the boat, I will take nothing away from the experience and the perserverence that Mitch put in to catch it.  For heavens sake, he woke up at 3 o'clock on a sunday morning to fish for an hour and a half, and head back home before his family got out of bed.  Now that's determination!  He has had a few close calls in our previous couple outings (all boatside attacks that have left him sleepless at night), he's seen a giant 51.5 incher come in the boat, and learned many tricks for success.  When that muskie grabbed his bait 3 feet from the boat in the darkness of a Sunday morning sky, he was ready for battle.  The funny thing about it all was that when the fish hit, it smacked so hard that it set the hook on itself causing a backlash in Mitch's reel, which basically left him helplessly holding onto the rod and an angry muskie.  He had the right steps figured out, however he wasn't able to use any of them during the intense battle.  That's exactly the type of fish that a guy needs to break the ice and get that first time muskie slime!  This muskie was in the low 30's, but will forever be a trophy for that lucky Mitch Petrie!  To top everything else off, a few minutes later we watched a spectacular sunrise that just never gets old.  What a morning!

Travis Frank ~ Livin the Dream!