Granny and I walked in our house from Australia early Sunday morning.  1:30 AM to be exact.  We slept a ridiculous 9 hours straight and woke around 10 AM.  A big no-no as far as defeating jetlag and getting back on schedule at home.  But we grabbed the bull by the horns since.  Sunday turned into a big day of unpacking and cleaning salt off the gear followed by the Packers game at our local tavern with friends.  It was super fun to watch a win and crush some hardy Wisconsin bar food.

As you know I was far behind on my blog.  I took excellent notes each evening after fishing while in Australia.  I made great strides getting caught up during the 40 hours of traveling home.  Monday and Tuesday I grinded it out all day while Granny was at her job.  Enough so that when Howie tossed out the idea of fishing Lake Superior today, we couldn’t pass it up.  We drove up to his house last night.  We slept in my Exploder and we were on our way at sunrise on a beautiful crisp fall morning.

Lake Superior was on her best fall behavior.  Most of the day we experienced very light wind under a vivid blue sky.  The temperature was 49° at start time.  Granny opted to spectate in the morning.  There was plenty of beauty to take in along the colorful Great Lake shoreline.

If we had a target today it was coho salmon.  I had a pike rod with wire buried in a rod tube but it was my 7-weight with a pair of smaller flies on an SA intermediate sink line that was in action.  Howie and I casted to numerous rolling fish but no luck.  In fact, neither Howie or I landed a fish all day.

Granny however, picked up the rod while Howie and I were eating lunch and hooked up.  It was a big strong fish that made only a short deep run.  Undoubtedly a pike.  And coho rigs don’t have wire for handling the teeth of a pike.  In fact, my leader was straight 0X Fluoro.

Let’s just say Granny was tuned to handle a big fish no matter what tricks he may send her way.  The experience in Australia where every fish ripped line paid off.  Granny babied this pike and maneuvered each tippet severing headshake like a surgeon and before we knew it, I had the 35” fat pike in the net. It’s the biggest Wisconsin pike we’ve caught since we made the move to the Great Northwoods!

Before we left home last night we had full intentions of bringing a fresh Lake Superior fish home for dinner.  Despite having a fancy for fresh pike, this fish is on its way to becoming a true Lake Superior trophy.  He was barely hooked in the tip of the snout.  The barbless little coho fly slipped out easy and I slipped the big boy back for next year.  Its nice to leave town and even better when you love to come home!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing