But it was big enough to win the Mitchell Daily Republic weekly fishing contest that summer of, oh, well, whatever summer it was.įull disclosure: I won because no one else entered a northern pike that week. I caught the first northern pike of my life in Reliance Dam close to 60 years ago. Seriously, half a century, and a little more. I dismissed the idea of a steel leader casually, noting to myself that I hadn’t caught a northern pike in Reliance Dam in, oh, half a century. Oh, don’t worry about steel leaders, or northern pike Monofilament or fluorocarbon leaders are used at the end of the heavy, highly visible fly line to connect almost invisibly to a tiny fake fly intended to fool trout and other fish.īut Bodhi meant steel leaders, the kind used to keep the razor-sharp teeth of a pike or muskie from cutting your fishing line during a fight. A small rig for small fish, as I expected the kids to catch.īodhi, however, had a question: “What about the leader?”Īh, the leader, which in certain fishing situations is used between the regular fishing line and the hook. It was a simple outfit, with a small split-shot weight squeezed onto the line a few inches above a small hook and a bobber a couple of feet above the split shot. That’s why Bodhi, a Minnesota kid with some experience on lakes where both bluegills and northern pike swim, was inquiring about leaders as I rigged up a rod and reel for him on the dock. When Old Toothy shows up, steel leaders tend to be useful. And it came in the ferocious form of a sizable northern pike, which crashed our little bluegill party on the fishing dock at Reliance Dam. We won’t need them? Seriously? Why not just slap the gods of fishing fate in the face and say, “OK, hotshots, whaddya got?” Kevin Woster Philip joins Bodhi and Casey Woster for some casting away from the dock at Reliance DamĪs famous last words go, the ones I spoke to my 8-year-old grandson Bodhi early Saturday morning should live on pretty well in Woster family lore.
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