Lured by Captain Action

Published in The Cottage Times, July 2008

Captain Action always says it’s not the size of your bait, but the wiggle in your worm. This I learned first hand the other day when I accompanied the Captain, a.k.a. Mike Bertelsen, on a fishing charter on Lake Muskoka. The goal: to catch some pike.

We met in the morning at the Muskoka Wharf and sped off in his 21 foot, 225 horsepower Tracker fishing boat, fully stocked with what seemed like most of the fishing gear Bass Pro Shops has to offer. After a few minutes of navigating, we turned off the engine and stopped at our first fishing hole. Captain Action (Mike) lowered the electric trolling motor and it was game on.

Thus far, my fishing experience has been limited to smashing clams on the rocks in front of my cottage, fastening them to my hook and eagerly waiting for sunfish and rock bass to nibble the line I gingerly held over the edge of my dock. Today was going to be a little more professional, to say the least.

Captain Action (alright, from now on I’ll call him Mike), took me on a tour of his boat, explaining to me how the trolling motor works, and explaining to me that his fish finder wasn’t cheating (as many have suggested) but was really used to find the weedy areas on the bottom of the lake – the perfect place to find pike.

Now it’s not often that on a summer day, I’ll hope for clouds but after Mike shared some of his fishing knowledge with me, in that the fishing is better when it’s cloudy, I silently begged for the sun to go away. I didn’t want this to be known as the day I tried to catch a pike, I wanted it to be known as the day I caught the biggest pike in Lake Muskoka ever recorded. Hey, anything is possible.

Apparently there are different lures for fishing in different conditions. When it’s cloudy, you want to use a lure that is brightly coloured or reflective, to catch the larger fishes attention. When it is sunny, you use a dull-looking bait. When we started out, there was a lot of cloud cover, so Mike hooked me up with what was called a ‘Blue Fox Vibrex Spinner,’ which is also known as an in-line spinner, and known to me as a bright yellow spinning thingy that was going to catch me a fish.

After teaching me proper casting techniques (which he later confessed women are generally better at than men), we fished silently in some shallow, weedy water. Eventually the sun came out, and Mike hooked my line with what is called a Bass Pro Shops XPS Minnow, also known as a suspending jerk bait, and once again, known to me as a rubbery green minnow. A few nibbles here and there, but no bites and nothing to reel in just yet.

We decided to try another spot. We packed up the gear and zipped to the next fishing hole. Here, according to the fish finder it was also quite shallow and weedy, and sure to be filled with pike. It was cloudy again, so I picked up the rod with the vibrex spinner and cast my line into the lake. After a few casts, I felt a hefty tug on the line and I jerked my rod like Mike had demonstrated. Before I knew it, I was reeling in a small pike! We got him in the boat, took a good look and a picture (for all those non-believers) and threw him back in the lake.

“Tell all your friends,” I said to the pike as he swam away.

On my very next cast, I felt another good tug on the rod and reeling in my line, I found I had another, larger, pike. We pulled him in the boat, and after he flipped around a bit on the bottom, eliciting a couple of screams from the only female on the boat (me), we threw it back in the lake.

I caught one more pike at that hole, making Mike and I even - three pike to three pike, before we moved on to the next spot.

At the last location, Mike managed to hook the largest pike of the day and I half-snagged a bass that managed to get away before I got him in the boat, which was actually good because bass aren’t in season until Saturday.

As we headed back to the dock for Captain Action to pick up his next group of anglers, I smiled with pride at how exciting it had been to catch my first three fish of the season. Even though they weren’t the biggest pikes and I didn’t manage to catch the largest pike ever recorded on Lake Muskoka, since I threw those little guys back in the lake, they will continue to grow.

As we pulled up to the dock, I looked back on the lake and sent a telepathic message to all those big fish out there. I’ll be back.