It was another family vacation to the cabin in Canada. Summer was coming to a close as August has arrived, perfect weather for fishing. After a four-hour drive from home, we finally arrive at the cabin. The first thing I see is the beautiful lake down below the giant rock our cabin sits on. We get all our luggage carried in and decide to enjoy the rest of our evening.

The next day, we decided to go walleye fishing. Yet again, Lake of the Woods did not disappoint. We caught our limit of walleye that day and fried them up for dinner. I asked my dad to check the weather for the upcoming week to see what the fishing will be like. It occurs the following day will bring rain and cloudy weather. This excites me as I know that is the prime weather for fishing muskies. At this point, I had never fished for muskies, but I always wanted to. My dad is the muskie master as he has caught many big muskies in his day. I beg my dad to take me muskie fishing, but he refused because he didn’t want to go out in that type of weather. Weird how the muskie master doesn’t want to fish for them in the perfect conditions, right?

My dad tells me how hard it is to catch muskies, as they call them “the fish of 10,000 casts.” I can just about hear my dad's thoughts as he knew how little of a chance we had. I knew that my chances were not good for catching one, but I just wanted to go out and fish for them anyways. Finally, I got my dad to say yes and agreed to take me muskie fishing the next day.  One thing made me upset. My dad told me in order for me to go, we had to take my sister. This really made me mad because this was supposed to be my big moment, not hers. I agreed to let my older sister come in order for me to go have the catch of a lifetime.

We woke up around 8:00 on a misty, cloudy Sunday morning. We got all the gear ready to go in the boat, and took off on our hunt. We took out my grandpa's green Lund boat with a 200 horse Yamaha motor. My dad decided to take us to one of his favorite muskie spots, Burrow Bay. After traveling five miles by boat in the chilling weather, we arrived. The brisk, cool weather provided an inviting scent, I knew this would be a good day. The first thing I saw was a small island is in the middle of Burrow Bay. Rocky shoreline stretches for miles and miles, with many pine and oak trees covering it. The sky is dark grey with sprinkles of rain falling from it.  My dad orders us to cast by the island as it looks like good structure for muskies. Cast after cast we don’t have any strikes. I notice how dark the water is and wonder how the fish even see our bait. Until all of a sudden I hear my sister say “fish on” as she reels in her first muskie.

After my sister caught a muskie, I felt rage take over my whole body.

“You ruined this whole trip!”, I said to my sister.

“Quit pouting and be happy for your sister”, my dad replied.

I was so mad she caught one and I hadn’t. I head to the front of the boat and refuse to fish because my sister had ruined my trip. I got jealous towards my sister, that was supposed to be my big moment. My dad finally convinced me to start fishing again because they don’t catch themselves. My dad gave me his special rod, a St.Croix rod with his favorite reel and spinner bait on it. The spinner bait was yellow as the sun, with a gold spinner. He gave me some tips on where to cast, he told me to throw one up by some pencil reeds. The second cast into those reeds I hooked a fish. I reeled, reeled, and reeled until the fish finally became visible in the murky, algae filled water. We finally got it netted and in the boat, and indeed it was a muskie.

All my anger drained and extreme happiness replaced it. The jealousy disappeared for now I had caught a muskie too.

I held the slimy fish in my hands and didn’t want to let go. The taste of victory filled me as I couldn’t believe what just occurred. The fish measured to be 46 inches long, bigger than my sister’s fish which came out to be 39 inches. The vibrant red color on the fish made it stand out. It had beautiful red fins and red lines that streaked across its body. The fish had teeth like daggers as I cut myself on them while taking out the hook. I released the fish because we ended up not having a camera to take pictures, but that image will never leave my memory.
My dad was amazed his two kids caught muskies their first time out. It took him 10 years to land his first muskie. None of us could believe what a day we had. The chances of two kids at the ages of nine and eleven, catching muskies in the same day is very little. I couldn’t thank my dad enough for what he had done for my sister and I.