sean61s (US)

 On October 24th, my wife Denise, and I, made our annual trip to Georgian Bay to fish with guide Jodi Mills. We normally only fish for three days with Jodi in search of
a Georgian Bay giant, knowing all to well that three days in search of a fish of a lifetime doesn't exactly put the odds in our favor, especially on a low density body of water such as Georgian Bay. We do understand, however, that in order to catch a giant, you need to fish water where they actually swim. Hence, ever year, especially in the fall, we find ourselves
trying to figure out how we are going to get up to Georgian Bay to fish with Jodi. As Jodi often says, "It is amazing that we ever catch these fish. There is always way more working against you, than for you." The only thing that we do have any control over is when we go.
Generally, the fish will be bigger later in the year, and generally, fishing a new or full moon pushes things in your favor. So, this year we booked three days beginning with the October full moon. The other
thing, of course, we had going for us was the countless hours that Jodi has spent on the Bay. One look at his Lowrance tells the story...countless icons, way points, trails, etc., all helping to make very big water at times almost seem small. We hit the water late morning, ran about a half an hour to a large bay. The end of the bay held musky spawning grounds, while the mouth opened the gates to mighty Lake Heron. In between was a puzzle. Thousands of acres of aqua green water as deep as one hundred feet with stunning visibility, with a series of humps. We spent much of our time trolling around the humps that Jodi had found in the past to hold bait and muskies. Some of the humps in the bay consistently disappointed, and we would occasionally run over them just to verify there status, "Can't say I understand it, but this hump just never seems to hold fish", Jodi would say. We were fishing under high pressure and blue bird skys. At one point we were happy to see four small clouds in the horizon. But even they didn't stay around for long. As the day went along, we even lost what little wind we had. We hadn't had a pull all day. We hadn't seen another boat either. There was only one cottage on the whole bay and it looked closed up for the winter. We had the entire bay too ourselves. A few of the bumps were holding bait and a few muskies. "With this high pressure, all we are doing is zeroing in on what we are going to fish this evening at moon rise." What Jodi was referring to was the 6:14 pm moon rise, which promised to be spectacular given the clear skys. We were also holding on to the fact that sun set was only minutes after moon rise. "If something is going to happen, an hour before moon up, to an hour after gives us our best chance". Because the sun was so low in the horizon pounding the sky with color, the giant moon peaking over the tree covered horizon wasn't easy to see. As a matter of fact, if we weren't looking for it, I am not sure we would have even noticed it, despite how big it was. A few minutes passed and the moon in its entirety had cleared the horizon. Wow. Even though this is what we had been waiting for all day to trigger a fish, our attention was more on what was happening in the sky than what was happening on the Lowrance. We looked to the west as the sun slid lower. For the first time all day, we weren't even thinking about fishing. I was thinking how lucky we were to love a sport that offered more rewards than just catching fish. It was just awesome. For a moment, both the sun and the moon, at complete opposite ends of the bay, were exactly the same distance from the tree tops. I felt for a second like the three of us were at a tennis match as we looked to the west, and then the east, and then back to the west again. All we could say was..Wow. I thought how cool it would be if we had a camera that had a wide angle lens wide enough to actually capture this! "Hey, Jodi and Denise, wouldn't it be cool if we had a camera that could...." Pow! One of the down rods unloaded! Jodi yelled, "fish!" I trade the financial markets for living. As strange as it may sound, I think there are many similarities between trading and fishing. When I was young in the business my boss gave me his take on being a trader, he said, "Most of the time it is like you are at school, at recess... every once in a while there is a pop quiz, and if you fail, you are kicked out of school". Well, it was pop quiz time on Jodi's boat!
Between clearing lines and moving rods to the front of the boat, making sure bolt cutters, pliers, tape measure and cameras were ready to go, there wasn't a whole lot of talking going on. I did hear Jodi say, "Nope, you have to stand up to fight this fish". I later asked Denise about this and she said, "Oh yeah, he said that to me as he was pulling me to my feet. The fish had pulled so hard I went down on one knee." Good lord! The fish came to the boat, looked to be hooked okay and rolled hard. The first thing we noticed was her girth, the second, the fact that the bait was no longer in her mouth, but laying against her side. She had rolled the bait out and was only being held by one roll of the line around her belly. We were horrified! Ready or not, with one deliberate scoop, Jodi had her in the net! In the boat she layed perfectly still for a quick easy measurement. 52 x 26.75. Wow, a solid 45 pounder at least. A handful of pictures and she was back in the water. When she decided to go, she powered away strong. "It is amazing that we ever catch these fish", still rings loud in my head. Sometimes, all it takes is choosing the right hump, on the right day, at the right hour, with the right bait at just the right speed...looking east to the moon, and then west to the sun, back to the east again, and...hang on!