On the final day of our family fishing vacation in Northern Ontario, we head out with two boats; my husband, son and I in one boat and my mom and dad in the other. The weather was windy and rainy, but we didn’t care. This was all about the big catch.  Throughout the day my dad would yell across the lake that they just caught “yet another pickerel!”. The occupants of my boat would smile, and try not to look at our empty fish chain still sitting in the bottom of the boat.

That’s not to say we were not catching fish. Oh, we were catching them alright. Sounds of “FISH ON! Get the net, this is a big one!” was yelled often. Being the ‘master netter’ that I am, I would reel up, grab the net and wait in anticipation while the big one was fighting on the line. Each and every time, when the fish would finally break the water, disappointment overwhelmed me to see it was a baby pike covered in weeds.  Somewhere in the early afternoon I stopped responding to their calls for the net. Instead I would remain reclined in the bow of the boat and observe the disappointment cross their faces from my comfy casting position.

In perfect timing my husband yells “Get the net! This is a big one!”  I give him an encouraging smile, and throw out another cast, and another and another. Finally, I laid my rod in the boat and waited. I thought to myself, “Oh he is really playing this one out – must be caught in a lot of weeds”.  Then, I saw the Northern Pike come to the surface. His tail came out of the water and my eyes popped out of my head. This thing looked the size of a shark! My son screamed and jumped to the other side of the boat as I fumbled for the net. My husband fought with this monster for another 15 minutes – as soon as it would surface, it would dive again. I had the net close to it only one time.  This monster fish had no plans of coming into the boat with us. He flew under the boat, the drag screeching out of my husbands reel and then, the most discouraging sound an angler could hear “PING” – broken line! We sat dumbfounded, no one said a word.   From across the lake, we hear a loud yell – “We just got another pickerel!”