I was nine years old. It was a Friday night, and my dad had just told me that we were going fishing tomorrow. I thought in my head, “Why this fishing trip would be any more special than any other one?” He told me that we were going with his friend that had done some professional fishing. I finally realized why this trip was so special. I chortled, “Yes” really loudly because I loved to fish. Fishing is my favorite hobby, and I was able to go with a pro fisherman, it doesn’t get any better than that. Not many people have the opportunity to fish with a pro.

So it was Saturday morning now, and I had woken up at about six in the morning. To the smell of my dad making some coffee. My dad and I were waiting for his friend to come pick us up at our house; I couldn’t wait for him to come. We were planning on fishing in Cumberland Wisconsin, but I had no idea what lake we were fishing on yet. I just knew it had to be a good one, because we were fishing with a professional fisherman. So then I saw my dad’s friend pulling into our driveway and it was time to go fishing.

We were just driving into Cumberland, and we pulled into a gas station to grab some snacks for the fishing trip.
Then I questioned my dad’s friend, “What lake are we going to fish on today?”
He responded, “Well John, we are going to two lakes called Little Dummy and Big Dummy.” I thought in my head, “Why they would call lakes Little Dummy and Big Dummy?” I guess I didn’t care what the lakes were called; I just wanted to catch fish. That’s all that was on my mind was catching some pike. As soon as we arrived at the lakes, I realized they were connected. They were really small, and I was ready to fish.

We backed the boat into the water next to the dock. Finally we all jumped into the boat, and ready to fish. All of a sudden, my leg hooked on to a Rapala, which was bait with multiple hooks on it. All of the hooks were stuck in my leg. This could not get any worse. In my head, I thought that I was going to have to go to the hospital and not be able to fish. Then my dad decides to grab some pliers and tries to pull it out of my leg. It hadn’t worked the Rapala was still stuck in my leg. Soon my dad tried one more time to pull it out of my leg, and it worked. The rapala just came out. It was really weird because my leg didn’t bleed at all, not one drop. Now maybe we could go fishing.

We finally arrived at the boat out on the water. I asked my dad’s friend what kind of fish are we going for today?
He replied, “We are going to fish for some northern pike today, is that fine with you John?”
I yelled, “Yup, that’s awesome!” I have always wanted to fish pike. I had never caught one before. They are very big fish with lots of teeth, in my opinion the coolest fish ever made. They are hard to catch, because of all of their teeth.
I asked my dad’s friend, “What’s our strategy to catching these fish?”
He replied, “We will troll around the outside of the lake and throw a rapala behind, and let it flow.” Trolling is where you just drive around the lake really slowly.

I finally threw my bait in the sunlit water.
My dad’s friend stated, “When you feel a tug on your pole, count to 15 and then set the hook.”
I responded, “Okay.” Soon, after like two minutes or so of letting my bait troll around the water, I felt a tug on my pole. My heart started to race, and I was thinking that this could be my first pike ever. I waited about 15 seconds, and then I set the hook.
“I have a fish!” I screamed. Then everyone’s attention became towards me.
My dad’s friend replied excitedly, “I think this may be a pretty big one.”
I replied with an excited tone, “I think so too!” I could barely hold on to my pole the fish felt so big. I was so determined to catch this fish; it was not escaping from me. I was starting to beat the fish; I kept getting it closer and closer to the boat. I became really excited. Later, after 15 minutes of fighting this fish I raised it up to the boat. My dad’s friend lifted it in the net, and brought it in the boat.
“It’s my first pike!” I screamed.

The fish was about 11 pounds, and 35 in. long, which was a really big fish, for me. It was a big pike; it was a little bit bigger than the average pike. The average pike is about 10 pounds and 30 in. long. I didn’t want it end there, I wanted to catch a lot more than just one pike. I threw my bait back in the water, and almost right away I had another bite. I caught another pike, but this one was only like three pounds or so. I kept throwing my rapala out in the calm water and fish kept on biting my bait. I caught one after another. They just kept on coming in. I was so happy.
“We’re going to be eating good tonight”, my dad said.
I yelled in response, “Yeah we will!”

So after we were done fishing, we caught about 15 more pike. I caught about 10 of those pike myself. I thanked my dad’s friend so much for taking us out on this lake. I never wanted to leave the lake, but we left anyway. We had to go back to our house to show my family my catch. My family loved it, except for my brother Josh, he was really jealous of me for catching all the big fish. He let it go after a while. Eventually we had to fillet our fish. I had no idea how to fillet a fish. Well luckily my dad’s friend knew how to fillet fish. Eventually we filleted all of the 15 fish or so we had caught. We made a special batter to mix the fish in, to make them taste better. I had never had pike before in my life. I didn’t know what pike taste like. But I wanted to try it really bad, and I hoped it was good.

The smell of the fish cooking on the frying pan smelt so good. That made me even more eager to eat my pike. Finally they were done, and my mouth started to water. Finally I was given my food. The taste of the crispy pike was so mouthwatering and great tasting. It was the best fish I’ve ever had. Everyone in my family enjoyed the fish. This was the best fishing day of my life.