By Louie Stout
Phil Duracz of Chesterton with a monster 41-inch, 19-pound northern pike
Fishing can be so unpredictable, regardless of your skill level.
In fact, the saying “beginner’s luck” may have been created by an angler.
But that’s Ok. That’s what makes fishing so darn cool. You’re not trying to hit a 95 mph fastball, shoot a basketball over a 7 footer, or run a football past 300-pound men.
You’re simply trying to tempt a fish with the brain the size of a pea to bite your hook and you never know when or what might happen.
Some of the greatest catches I’ve heard about over the past 40 years have occurred when the person least expected it.
For example, the world record crappie (5 pound 7.68 ounces) was caught from a 1-acre pond in Tennessee a few weeks ago by an angler casting a small grub.
Closer to home, the angler who caught the Michigan state record smallmouth in 2016 was fishing the bank from the Indian River with a nightcrawler.
He wasn’t in a $50,000 bass boat. He didn’t have sophisticated electronics. He didn’t have a $500 rod and reel.
In fact, he was planning on eating the fish until a neighbor suggested he get it weighed and compare to the state record.
In 1991, a Kentucky woman was fishing a private campground lake in southern Indiana when she hooked a 14-pound, 12 ounce largemouth bass that still stands as the Hoosier record.
That’s how these things happen. If you questioned every person who currently holds an Indiana or Michigan state record, only a small percentage were highly skilled anglers who were targeting the fish they caught.
The point is you never know when a giant fish might strike.
Even here in Michiana.
Earlier this summer, expert bass angler Phil Duracz of Chesterton was fishing for bass with a jig on Juno Lake and caught a monster 41-inch, 19-pound northern pike. It is arguably the biggest pike local experts recall ever being caught there.
Clayton Lagodney of South BendIn early August, teenager Clayton Lagodney of South Bend was fishing Worster Lake at Potato Creek and caught two big hybrid striped bass while fishing for largemouth bass.
Now, Worster has an abundance of hybrids but they spend most of their lives offshore in deep water, but Clayton caught his on buzzbaits – a shallow, topwater bait. You just don’t hear of those hybrids attacking buzzbaits.
His father said it was the only two fish they caught that day and the first-ever hybrids they have ever caught from Worster Lake.
And how about our story a few weeks ago when Chuck White caught the same tagged fish from the St. Joseph River that he landed and released from nearly the same spot and almost to the same day three years ago!
And do you remember the story a few weeks ago about Joe Canarecci taking his 6-year-old son Calister catfishing for the first time and catching the giant 15-pound-plus catfish off the St. Joe River bank at Merrifield Park?
Once again, you never know what you might catch – or where.
That’s one of the great charms we have with fishing. You don’t have to be an athlete, or an expert, or have expensive tackle.
You just have to go fishing.