It was 4 a.m. as we bounced down the country road in the pickup. I was still half asleep and hadn't managed to pour a cup of coffee from the thermos yet. It was a clear winter morning and cold outside, the temperature reaching a solid -10 degrees. As daylight broke in the east we came to the end of the road at the shore a large lake.
"Okay, we're here" said my friend Larry. "Grab your stuff and we'll head out to the shack."
I was about to go ice fishing for the first time. I was in Michigan visiting my in laws (Larry was my wife's cousin) and had been convinced that I just HAD to go ice fishing at least once in my life. It all seemed like a waste of time to me, but I played along for the sake of familial bliss. My goals for the day were to try to stay as warm as possible, not fall through the ice, and maybe even catch some fish for dinner.
We arrived at the ice shack about 400 yards out on the ice and got settled in. After stoking up the wood stove and using the gas powered auger to bore a hole in the ice, we both hunkered down on small benches and dropped our lines in, waiting for dinner to come our way.
After a while Larry began to regale me with tales of the Lake Michiwanda monster fish. It was known to have lived here in the lake for at least 50 years and was sighted occasionally by local fisherman and bathers. There were the usual apocryphal tales of fisherman almost landing him yet losing him before they could get him in the boat, bathers scared from the water thinking a large shark was after them, the typical folklore one hears in these circumstances. Obviously we were dealing with a rather large carp here. I didn't expect much excitement.
We pulled in a few croppies and a gar and things settled down. And we fished and waited. And waited. The last of the wood burned down to its last vestiges and still we waited. As the shadows grew longer in the small windows of the shack Larry announced that it was time to start packing it in. He didn't have to tell me twice and I moved to start doing just that. As I stood up the first shock came.
There was a large 'thump' and a strong vibration coarsed through my feet. It was a strange feeling and I couldn't suss what had happened. Suddenly I started to hear intermittent popping sounds as large cracks formed in the ice below us. BAM! Another impact and the shack actually shifted a few inches. Items fell off of shelves and I almost lost my footing. I looked at Larry and before I could ask he shouted at me to keep packing up.
It was about this time that I noticed the sound of several engines outside of the shack and I realized that there were several snow mobiles buzzing around us outside. There were shouts and noises. When I got outside the shack there were a couple of dozen people in heavy winter gear, armed with hunting rifles and pulling ropes and cables out onto the ice. BAM! As I turned around to look the ice around the shack exploded opening into a wide gaping hole and swallowing the ice shack slowly. The men on the ice worked frantically in anticipation of some mysterious event that was about to take place.
Suddenly everything was very quiet. We all waited, though I wasn't sure for what. All of a sudden more ice around the hole exploded and up out of the water came the hugest fish I'd ever seen. "Holy shit" yelled Larry "It's the monster fish!!" The creature flew up through the hole like a whale leaping from the ocean, and flopped up on the adjacent ice where it undulated, beating it's head against the ice. "Get him boys" yelled Larry "He's trying to break through again, don't let him!". Suddenly several hunting rifles opened fire and the thud of bullets hitting fish flesh rang through the air. The beast kept undulating, presumably as much from pain as from a desire to return to the depths. More shots rang out and four of the men ran forward on foot and threw what appeared to be spears into the dying giant. These 'spears' were attached to cables, whose other ends waited for the tractors that were now moving towards us across the ice.
The fish was the size of a small whale. It took 5 tractors to pull it across the ice to the shore where a low boy trailer, used for moved bulldozers and such was waiting. The beast was loaded onto the trailer and we all followed it in caravan towards town.
"I've never seen anything like that" I said. "I didn't imagine a fish, especially a fresh water fish that size could have existed."
"We knew he was there" Larry replied. "Outsiders never believed us, but we knew. We do this a few times every winter, trying to get him to show hisself. Well, now we got him"
"So where are we going, a college or government game and wildlife office or something?"
"Hell no! We gonna have the biggest damned fish fry you ever seen!"
"But Larry, this could be scientifically significant. This should probably be studied and documented, don't you think?" I asked.
"Listen boy, one thing you'll learn about folks around here. We NEVER miss the opportunity to have a fish fry!"
"Okay, we're here" said my friend Larry. "Grab your stuff and we'll head out to the shack."
I was about to go ice fishing for the first time. I was in Michigan visiting my in laws (Larry was my wife's cousin) and had been convinced that I just HAD to go ice fishing at least once in my life. It all seemed like a waste of time to me, but I played along for the sake of familial bliss. My goals for the day were to try to stay as warm as possible, not fall through the ice, and maybe even catch some fish for dinner.
We arrived at the ice shack about 400 yards out on the ice and got settled in. After stoking up the wood stove and using the gas powered auger to bore a hole in the ice, we both hunkered down on small benches and dropped our lines in, waiting for dinner to come our way.
After a while Larry began to regale me with tales of the Lake Michiwanda monster fish. It was known to have lived here in the lake for at least 50 years and was sighted occasionally by local fisherman and bathers. There were the usual apocryphal tales of fisherman almost landing him yet losing him before they could get him in the boat, bathers scared from the water thinking a large shark was after them, the typical folklore one hears in these circumstances. Obviously we were dealing with a rather large carp here. I didn't expect much excitement.
We pulled in a few croppies and a gar and things settled down. And we fished and waited. And waited. The last of the wood burned down to its last vestiges and still we waited. As the shadows grew longer in the small windows of the shack Larry announced that it was time to start packing it in. He didn't have to tell me twice and I moved to start doing just that. As I stood up the first shock came.
There was a large 'thump' and a strong vibration coarsed through my feet. It was a strange feeling and I couldn't suss what had happened. Suddenly I started to hear intermittent popping sounds as large cracks formed in the ice below us. BAM! Another impact and the shack actually shifted a few inches. Items fell off of shelves and I almost lost my footing. I looked at Larry and before I could ask he shouted at me to keep packing up.
It was about this time that I noticed the sound of several engines outside of the shack and I realized that there were several snow mobiles buzzing around us outside. There were shouts and noises. When I got outside the shack there were a couple of dozen people in heavy winter gear, armed with hunting rifles and pulling ropes and cables out onto the ice. BAM! As I turned around to look the ice around the shack exploded opening into a wide gaping hole and swallowing the ice shack slowly. The men on the ice worked frantically in anticipation of some mysterious event that was about to take place.
Suddenly everything was very quiet. We all waited, though I wasn't sure for what. All of a sudden more ice around the hole exploded and up out of the water came the hugest fish I'd ever seen. "Holy shit" yelled Larry "It's the monster fish!!" The creature flew up through the hole like a whale leaping from the ocean, and flopped up on the adjacent ice where it undulated, beating it's head against the ice. "Get him boys" yelled Larry "He's trying to break through again, don't let him!". Suddenly several hunting rifles opened fire and the thud of bullets hitting fish flesh rang through the air. The beast kept undulating, presumably as much from pain as from a desire to return to the depths. More shots rang out and four of the men ran forward on foot and threw what appeared to be spears into the dying giant. These 'spears' were attached to cables, whose other ends waited for the tractors that were now moving towards us across the ice.
The fish was the size of a small whale. It took 5 tractors to pull it across the ice to the shore where a low boy trailer, used for moved bulldozers and such was waiting. The beast was loaded onto the trailer and we all followed it in caravan towards town.
"I've never seen anything like that" I said. "I didn't imagine a fish, especially a fresh water fish that size could have existed."
"We knew he was there" Larry replied. "Outsiders never believed us, but we knew. We do this a few times every winter, trying to get him to show hisself. Well, now we got him"
"So where are we going, a college or government game and wildlife office or something?"
"Hell no! We gonna have the biggest damned fish fry you ever seen!"
"But Larry, this could be scientifically significant. This should probably be studied and documented, don't you think?" I asked.
"Listen boy, one thing you'll learn about folks around here. We NEVER miss the opportunity to have a fish fry!"
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