There is something to be said for sitting quietly in the morning drinking a hot cup of coffee as the sun rises up. The crickets are chirping this morning and the cool air gives rise to steam coming off the water, it envelops the Mackinaw Bridge like a giant cloud. You can see the towers poking out through the haze. What a way to spend a vacation!

Yesterday we hit the water early in the morning, it was a chilly 54 degrees out. My hunting senses kicked into high gear again, too bad we were going fishing though. After an orange juice and donut from the local bakery we headed to Carp Lake just down the road on US 31. When we got to the boat launch there was another gentleman putting his boat in also.

The lake was like glass, I knew that we were going to see some action this morning. We were so excited to get on the water that we headed out without getting our life jackets out of the truck, Jacob was the first to notice this. Back to the dock we went. After the return trip we made our way to what looked like a great fishing spot. We trolled a little ways until the weeds got too bad, no luck! We then found a spot just off a weed bed and we anchored up. Michael had put on a Dare Devil Crackle Frog spoon and I was using a Mepps #4 Deer Tail Spinner, Jacob was using the same lure in a #3 size. Michael cast out and was retrieving the spoon, when about 15 feet from the boat he saw a fish swim up and smack the lure! “Dad, Dad! I got a fish and it’s a pike!” Michael fought if for a minute or two then I grabbed the net and saw that it was a nice one! I tried to land it, but it flipped out of the mouth of the net. Michael brought it back again and I netted it this time.

We got it in the boat, he told me that definitely has to be a keeper. I told him it had to be 24 inches to be a keeper. He said, “That is way over 24.” I had to settle him down and tell him that they always look bigger than they are. We got the tape measure out and it measured just 24 inches. In the basket he went!

We fished some more with no luck so we decided to head back in to the boat launch. I decided to throw out my spinner and troll back to the launch. We were getting near where we had put in, when something smacked my lure! I grabbed the rod and could feel the fish fighting, so I grabbed for the throttle on the motor. I put it in neutral and must have let some slack in the line because all of a sudden it went limp. I knew I had made a mistake, never let the line go slack.

Well, we still had fun and put a nice pike in the freezer along the way. We didn’t slam them, but we did get out on the water and that is what vacation fishing trips are all about.