A Pinky

Every year in May, my step dad would say..."If the lilacs are blooming, the white bass are biting"...and off we would go to Fremont Wisconsin to the Wolf River.

 

 

My step dad would carry our 14 foot flat bottom boat on top of our bus camper. He would also use a tow bar to pull our "camping" car behind the bus. It was a Chevy Corvair that he had painted orange to match the orange stripes on the bus camper. Once we arrived to the campgrounds we would have a way to go into town, etc. One year my step brother and his family had followed us up. They were using a tent and had rented a boat from the campgrounds. While on a fishing trip, one must always awake at the crack of dawn. Eat breakfast, pack lunch (if you have plans to stay out on river all day) and head on down to your boat and pull anchor. On this particular day, my step brother and his family followed us in their boat. We set anchor at one of my step dad's favorite fishing "spots". Sometimes I would fish and sometimes I would just play in the water with my hand. There were even times when I would catch baby snapping turtles on the end of one of the boat oars. This day I was fishing with rod and reel. If you have ever went fishing then you know that most of the time is spent waiting for a fish to bite your bait. This day was no different for everyone. No bites and my step dad was about to give it up for the day, when I got a bite and reeled in a very decent sized white bass...My mom took the fish off my hook for me as I didn't know how. I could bait my own hook though... I threw my line back in the water and BAM! I had another bite and reeled in another white bass. Again my mom removed the fish from my hook and back in the water it went. BAM! another bite and we continued the cycle. Everytime I threw my hook into the water I had a bite, just like that!! I was catching fish so fast that everyone else in both boats gave up trying just so they could take the fish off my line. Our boats were close enough together that I could swing the fish into either boat. Thank goodness for that. They were dumbfounded how I was catching so many fish. My step dad asked me.. "What are you using for bait?"..I said.. "I have a pinky on it"..he asked.." You don't even have a minnow on it?"..I said.. "No only the pinky". They could not believe it!! What we called a pinky was this little pink feathery fishing lure. I thought they were cute, lol...I found this picture on the web of them...except the one I was using was completely pink.

So then they all tried to use what I was using but still they didn't get any bites. I kept on throwing my pinky out and the white bass kept biting it, for the next hour...  They were everywhere!! We had 2 metal fish baskets full and 2 fish stringers full and the bottoms of both boats full. So we headed back. I would always help my step dad clean the fish. I would scale them and he would do the rest. This is a very messy smelly job. The fish scales go everywhere and my hair would look like a Christmas tree decorated with fish scales when we were done. This day this job took forever and my step brother was also brought in for reinforcements.  As you see for I and I alone in 1 hour had caught 100 white bass!! I really enjoyed that too..I wasn't bored that was for sure. We had to go into town and buy garbage cans to put the fish in so we could take them home. Garbage cans full of ice and fish..I had caught lots of fish before this, but on this day, for that 1 hour I was a mighty fisherman!!