WHAT WE DID ON OUR SUMMER VACATION
ALONG THE BLUE HIGHWAYS
By Stan Hitchcock
Mid July, hotter than blue blazes in Tennessee so my family and I decided to load up and head North to Wisconsin and camp along the Mississippi River. Our 18 year old son, Scott, is getting ready to enter College in a few weeks so this was a time for he and I to spend some good time together on the river and catch some fish. The fishing was fantastic and we had caught and released so many small mouth and large mouth bass that I lost count. On the last day I threw a lure into a deep water hole and something just exploded on the end of my line. I was fighting a much bigger fish than I was expecting and after much excitement I finally got the monster fish next to the boat. I had caught a 15 pound Northern Pike. Now they don’t have fish like this in Tennessee so I was about to learn something new in regards to catch and release. I reached down, like I always do with the bass I catch in Southern waters, to catch the fish by the lip to remove the hook and set him free. Turns out Northern Pike have teeth about like a Pit Bull dog and when I got close to his mouth he bit down on my thumb and tried to bite it off. Catch and Release took on a whole new meaning...reversing the releaser and releasee. I now have a new scar on my thumb to remind me of a wonderful week of camping and fishing along the blue highway and to be careful of the dreaded man-eating Northern Pike. However, it did give me a good bit of storytelling around the campfire.
Mid July, hotter than blue blazes in Tennessee so my family and I decided to load up and head North to Wisconsin and camp along the Mississippi River. Our 18 year old son, Scott, is getting ready to enter College in a few weeks so this was a time for he and I to spend some good time together on the river and catch some fish. The fishing was fantastic and we had caught and released so many small mouth and large mouth bass that I lost count. On the last day I threw a lure into a deep water hole and something just exploded on the end of my line. I was fighting a much bigger fish than I was expecting and after much excitement I finally got the monster fish next to the boat. I had caught a 15 pound Northern Pike. Now they don’t have fish like this in Tennessee so I was about to learn something new in regards to catch and release. I reached down, like I always do with the bass I catch in Southern waters, to catch the fish by the lip to remove the hook and set him free. Turns out Northern Pike have teeth about like a Pit Bull dog and when I got close to his mouth he bit down on my thumb and tried to bite it off. Catch and Release took on a whole new meaning...reversing the releaser and releasee. I now have a new scar on my thumb to remind me of a wonderful week of camping and fishing along the blue highway and to be careful of the dreaded man-eating Northern Pike. However, it did give me a good bit of storytelling around the campfire.