My youngest son and I fished the 45th annual International Northern Pike tournament held here this past weekend and had a great time and some success. There were over 150 contestants fishing for two days and I was able to get second place after leading the whole first day and my son wound up getting 5th place. This is the second year in a row where I finished second and thought maybe this would be the time that I would finally take first but it was not to be. We got a couple of nice trophies and paychecks for having a great time catching fish. I have fished this tournament 43 out of the 45 years they have held it. Prizes are based on the largest fish...only one per day per contestant.
My fish was 13 pounds , seven ounces and my son's was 12 pounds, six ounces.





We don't get to see each other very often so this was an exciting father/son bonding adventure.

Terrific right there Mn....

Osky

thats great,my son is a lifer in the A.F. in Minot N.D. and made it home a month ago and fishing with the family was at the top of his list of priorities.

That's cool.
You sure look like a younger D Pearson

Fantastic memories right there. Nice work.

WTG!, along with some good eating.

The fish all were released after the quick photos. I do like them but catch the eaters at another time. We did catch plenty that would have been good eaters but released them since we were too pooped to want to clean fish. We fish 12 hours straight the first day while never leaving the boat for anything but to to weigh a fish and 8 hours the second day. It can be brutal with the wind, rain and lightening that we encountered on Saturday.

I have met him and fished alongside of him and Betsy on Leech Lake years ago. He caught a muskie on Two Points next to me and I remember Betsy patting him on the back after he released it.

You didn't even catch any BIG northerns?

No we did not...but believe me ..... WE WANTED TO. I managed to get a jerk bait hook driven entirely through my thumb while I was trying to unhook my biggest fish. My cutters were dull and it took extreme effort from my son to get the thick hook cut off so I could pull it back through. It's a good thing that when the fish drove it though that it became unattached from the fish at the same time or the damage and pain would have been a bit worse.

That is great! They go all out the way it looks, with the size of those trophies.

Congrats !!!!!

Outstanding, congrats to both of you!

Except for the hook incident...

Very nice! Sorry to hear that you had to cut a nice hook!

Chris

wtg making memories

Don't worry, I had a replacement with me already attached to a heavy duty split ring and had it on shortly afterwards. I had planned to have to cut a few hooks....only out of the fish.

Congrats. Way to go.

Well, I decided that my thumb not only looked better but felt better without it stuck through there.




This was taken 4 days after it happened.

Wow! Hope your tetanus shot was up to date.

Those were real nice northerns. I used to consider them junk fish until I learned to take out the Y bones. Now, they're some fine eatin!