Mayday! Mayday!!!!

Lou Ann with the first biggie of the day!

It was a bit nippy in late April, when Bill and Lou Ann McLaren teamed up with me in the Detroit River to fight some walleye during the spring spawning run, where fish from Lake Erie head into Lake St. Clair.  Of Course we were with our trusty Captain, Ed –who operates Medicine Man Charters and he is quick to break out a joke if the fishing slows down.  I couldn’t sleep the night before, dreaming about some of the monsters Captain Ed has netted in years past.  There were times when we limited out within two hours, throwing 5 lb. walleye back because bigger ones were in the net.  Mmm…2015 sure sizzled, coated in cracker crumbs and parmesan cheese, frying in a cast iron skillet.

Click on this beauty and see it full size!

Our hot spot took us past the Renaissance Center (which it will always be to me) and past some manufacturing sites, eerily belching out rolling, white steam. Lou Ann can sure take some pretty pictures and she captured the cityscape.

The whole point of the story is that me, the Great White Fish Kisser, did not land a single one. 

WTF stands for Where’s The Fish?  EVERYONE ELSE caught walleye and smallmouth bass while I clenched my miserable pole with frozen fingers that began to curl and freeze on the reel.  I jigged; I swear.  5,000 pulls earned me nothing but a “skunked” award.  I can, however, tell a few new jokes.

Alysha had her game face on, all buttoned up in her woolies and North Face down.  Real Girls Fish.

The following week, I went back out on the lake, with Captain Ed, and the day proved colder, iced with blowing winds.  This time I brought a trump card, a real women’s pro with me…Alysha Doellner, my future daughter-in-law and reigning First Place Champion in the Women’s Salmon Fishing Tournament on Lake Michigan.  Yeah, sh*t got real.

We landed 16 fish that day and in the process of tossing them from the bow to the live well at the stern (for 3 points) we almost got hit by a freighter.  Captain Ed had to rip that big engine on his Ranger boat ASAP as we reeled in. Dicey. It came up from behind–that sneaky iron devil; in stealth mode.