closa

Last summer I was fishing three miles north of Port Wing, Wisconsin on Lake Superior with my wife and two grandsons. We caught five lakers and two cohos and were just pulling all of our lines in for the day. My grandson Nolan noticed something floating in the water about 50 feet from the boat. We drove up to the object and saw that it was a Yellow Bird planer board. I grabbed it and when I started pulling on the line I could feel something on the other end. At first I thought maybe it was a fishing pole but then I could feel the line tugging and I knew the weight was a fish. I handlined the fish up to the boat and my wife netted it - a 10-pound laker and still alive. On the Yellow Bird was the name "Reel Nauti" and a phone number. I called the number thinking that someone must have lost the fish that day and I wanted to give the fish and gear back to the owner. To my surprise the person that lost the fish was Capt. Tom Linderholm, a charter boat captain from Duluth, Minnesota. He lost the fish two weeks earlier in front of the Lester River in Duluth. He told me to keep the fish, but I returned the Yellow Bird and the bait to him. That fish travelled at least 30 miles in two weeks, planer board attached.

By Steve Gustafson, Port Wing, Wisconsin – Great Lakes Angler