Coming off the night shift, frying steak and eggs, it’s noon… DING!

It’s Trevor calling. Shit! Not right now, don’t want to burn this breakfast. Will call him back…

“Hey Bunks! Whatsyadoin’ this Thursday or Friday? Wanna fish splake?” Back of my mind thinking… I hate splake. Worst enemy. But words out of my mouth… “YEAH MAN! Was just thinking splake!” And as easy as that, a plan is hatched.

But here’s the thing with me and splake, it’s NEVER been an “easy” plan. Honestly couldn’t tell ya how many times over the past decade and more I’ve thrown the hat in the ring with these fish and lost. Splake deflate me. No success with ‘em! Have been fishing and looked at 5+ pounders swimming around and still couldn’t figure ‘em out. Not counting a few dinkeroos caught now and again, for the most part splake have offered me up an outright ass kicking every time. Skunk after skunk. Knockout blows to the fishing ego. Honestly my greatest adversary ever!

Though with Trevor there was some hope and trust. Knew he had his middle finger on the pulse of these fish. Had confidence that with him, I was going to either catch a fish or learn something new trying. So when the time came to finally meet up there was a fresh and positive attitude happening… Ohhhh but he wants to fish “that” lake. Yeah, been there, been there enough, been there enough to know it’s tough… but still positive though.

At the lake the fishing sucked! All morning long we caught nothing but a bass. Some trouty-like play on the sonar was showing but the fish were lock-jawed. Nothing in the arsenal of baits between Trevor, his friend Shawn and myself was working to coax any splake to bite. Seemed the curse was still in check.

Hours passed. A warmer day it was nice enough being out. The long walk to the spots through deeper snow pulling sleighs was a bit of a trudge at first but after awhile the back-sweat dried and all was comfortable.

A fish that came in on my sonar shot hot on a lure but on a fast reel-up pulled away suddenly last minute. WTF? Then a fish returned and sulked about coming in and out of the cone awhile. C’MON SPLAKE!

Wondering on it a moment, my set line close by hadn’t had a sniff all morning and there was not a chance that fish hadn’t passed it by on route to me. What was that about?

Checking the minnow there it appeared I didn’t have one, and once resetting the line with fresh bait I watched on the sonar as tiny fish rose up to the sinking and settling minnow, perchies? But no sooner was the rod in it’s holder and I stepped away from the hole and back to may seat, did the rod snap hard into a heavier fish.

And that’s where this begins…
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VIDEO!! LINK HERE!!! —–>>> One HUGE SPLAKE !!!
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Not in a long while ice fishing do I remember being so nervous playing a fish. The hook so lightly in it’s top lip, the thrash and weight of the fish, to set my drag any tighter while pulling the head into the hole, I worried as soon as any vertical hard head thrashing or air gravity came into play, that this catch was gonna be gone. And that happens at the hole! A few times I lift and in video the fish looks right enough to grab but, it’s actually deeper than one would think and, the heaviness of the splake was itself enough to pull line off the reel. It wasn’t until the third or fourth good attempt that my worries cleared enough to tighten the drag just a click to make the final grab.

Will say, I was over the moon. Trevor’s commentary and our back-and-forth is fun but not so PG for the kiddies. Glad the day happened with him, thankful too. I already know that as far as 2020 catches go, this one will be top three if not holding number one. Finally, ONE HUGE SPLAKE and big monkey off my back.

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Thanks for viewing,
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Bunk.
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