The line snapped like a rifle shot as the huge fish exploded thru the side of the dip net. Bob and the fish both smashed thru the Tracker Bass boat windshield on their way into the bottom of the boat. But Then ALL Hell Broke Loose!
It was 6:30 am, a breathtaking day, July 4th. Bob and I (his name is really Dave Granger, but he has fallen into the San Juan river so many times his brother and I now call him Bob) were fishing for smallmouth bass up the Pine River arm in Navajo Lake near the Colorado New Mexico border. We were in my Tracker Pro Team 175 bass boat near a sheer drop-off in 80’ feet of water.
We were both heavily armed with 4 1/2 foot ultra-light rods and about 150 yards of new 4 lb. test line. Bob and I were fishing with 1/16 oz. jig heads tipped with white plastic power grubs. We had already caught and released 10 nice fish when my jig hung up under what I thought was a rock. As I turned my Minn Kota trolling motor toward the snag, I noticed that the line was moving slowly into deeper water. I turned to “Bob” and said “I have a fish on so large that it doesn't even know it’s hooked.
As we followed the fish out into 150 feet of water, I began to apply a little pressure with the rod. When the big fish didn’t move, I was convinced it was a huge channel catfish. After we had traveled 50 or so yards from shore I set the hook with a sharp snap of the rod. The fish violently shook its head for at least 15 seconds and then flat out screamed toward the middle of the lake. She made 4 or 5 of these long runs and almost 20 minutes later, we finally saw the big northern pike.
“Bob” carefully positioned himself at the bow of my Tracker boat right next to me so he could bang the fish in the side of the head with the net when I got it close enough. And that is just exactly what he did on the first netting attempt. Here I am with a monster pike on a 4 1/2 foot buggy whip rod loaded with 4 lb. test line and my buddy whacks it on the side of the head with the landing net. The fish strips off another 100 feet of line and it takes me another 15 minutes to bring her boat side again. Carefully selecting words that I know that he can clearly understand, I tell “Bob” that if he hits the fish in the head with the net again, he will most certainly end up in the lake with the pike.
This time “Bob” gets it right, head in first, but he misjudges her weight and doesn't have enough leverage to swing her out of water. He slides his hand down the net handle and now with better leverage, he swings the fish over the side of the boat just before the line snapped and then she exploded right through the side of the net. “Bob” fell backwards into the bottom of my Tracker boat breaking off the windshield on his way down. The big pike fell in his lap snapping her jaws at anything and everything in sight, including rods, what’s left of the net and “Bob’s” crotch! As I grab the fish and dragged it off him, “Bob” starts yelling “oh my back, my back”. I move quickly to help my buddy, who now mysteriously, but much to my relief, doesn't seem to be hurt quite so badly as I thought.
We put a stringer on the magnificent fish so we could get her back into the water before we took her picture. She measured 42 inches long and weighed 18 3/4 lb. After a couple of quick photographs, Dave/Bob gently released her. The International Game Fish Association informed me that she would have placed 8th in the 4 lb. test line class world records. To this day, I’m still glad we didn’t enter her into the records, because at that time, it would have meant we would have had to kill her. Hopefully she is alive today making thousands of little Northern Pike every year.
Months later I found out from Dave/Bob that he hadn’t really hurt his back at all, he was faking it, attempting to gain sympathy and divert my attention from the broken windshield. Dave Granger, in Farmington, New Mexico, is however the only fisherman I ever heard of who got his butt totally kicked by a fish after it was already in the landing net!