A Perfect Day

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You don’t usually know you are in a perfect day until after you have had one. November may provide more perfect days than any other month. It might be that expectations for both fish and weather are lower and excellent weather and fishing conditions feel like a gift from mother nature. It might be that the angle of the sun’s descent makes sunsets seem to last forever and the cold fall air filters light into colours that exist at no other time. I think it is a combination of many things and that there is more gratitude and appreciation for how special our past time is as the season winds down.

November provided many perfect days this year and was the strongest November numbers wise for a number of years. Early in the month I had the pleasure of fishing with another K Lakes member of MCI in Phil Kloosterman, and his mother Amy.

Phil caught his muskies and moved some others on new baits and new tactics. Amy learned to cast but hadn’t really contemplated the ‘what if’ part of the exercise. When her first big fish hit it was about 20 feet off the port side and the giant thrashing head caught our new student by surprise and she was more interested in finding a safe place to hide than catching the fish. When Phil and I finally stopped laughing Amy decided that was enough casting for her. And then it happened……

After a half hour or so of contemplating that musky, Amy decided she wanted another chance. And so she began casting again but this time she would be ready and she was but musky fishing is far from fair and despite taking my advice on trying to break my Shimano rod on a hookset, another good fish didn’t stick. This was now getting serious and the want to have another try was turning into a need. This is how it starts….. But even the third musky that tried to get into our boat on Amy’s line didn’t want a picture and so there will no doubt be a score to settle at a later date.

Learning, laughing, telling stories, reveling in fish and fowl and raptors and skies of 100 greys that eventually turned to fire. It was indeed perfect.