Northern Minnesota Monsters
Tyler Molde
April 23, 2013


It was a cool August morning up in Vermillion, Minnesota. My family and my uncle’s family were all in Vermillion on vacation. It was the second day we had been up there; we had been catching tons of fish, but nothing worth hanging on the wall. Suddenly I awoke at 7:49 a.m. and walked out into the living room of our cabin. I looked around and saw that no one was awake. I decided that I was going fishing on the pier.
I walked outside, and I looked around at the giant pine tree to the right of our cabin. I took a big breath, and the smell of wet, dewy grass was in the air. I walked down the steps off the deck and started my way to the pier, which was about 200 feet away. I was wearing my black running pants and my yellow zip up sweatshirt. I ran and jumped on the pier, and to my surprise, there was no one out fishing. I walked to the end of the pier where our boat was tied up and jumped into it.
I found my fishing pole and tied on a ¾ ounce white jig head. Then I looked through the compartment where our baits were. I found a tub of Gulp Alive leeches. I thought that they would do. I walked to the very end of the pier and walked down the last dock on the left. I put down my leeches, peeled off the film, and weaved one onto my hook.
I cast out towards a buoy that was just a little to my right. I knew there were rocks at the bottom because there was a natural dam about 400 feet to my left. I bounced my bait off the rocks, and I felt a fish hit the bait. I set the hook and reeled it in; it was a decent-sized largemouth bass. It was probably 14 or 15 inches, not too bad. I tossed it back in the water and cast out again. I used the same process on the second cast, as the first. I bounced that jig head off the rocks and felt another fish hit, and I set the hook and reeled it in.
I love catching largemouth because they put up a good fight, and like to jump. I reeled this one in, and it was about the same size as the other one. I caught probably 7 or 8 more, and it never got boring.
The time was around 9 a.m. by now, and I made a cast straight out in front of me. I started reeling and bouncing the bait off of the rocks just like I did before. I felt the fish hit the bait, and I set the hook. Except when I set the hook this time the fish didn’t swim up or towards me. As a matter of fact the fish didn’t even move.
I was scared that it was going to be a monster muskie, because the boundary waters are known for world record muskies. Then the fish decided to start swimming sideways out into deeper water. It was taking out line un-like all of those bass. I kept reeling though; I had to get this fish. I coaxed it towards the dock, so I could maybe get it up onto the dock. The fish was getting close to the end of the dock, but I still had a long way to reel. The fish finally swam to the surface of the glistening water, and I could see that it was a behemoth northern. As soon as I saw it, I immediately started trembling with adrenaline. I saw some workers on shore.

I screamed, “Get a net, Net, I need a net!”
I pulled the fish in between two of the docks. I was still really gentle pulling it up though. I knew that if the fish decided to pull its head, it would cut the line like a scissors cuts through paper. A boy holding a net ran to the end of the dock to where I was just in time too. As soon as he got to me the fish jumped out of the water and on to the dock. He quickly scooped this fish up, and we brought it into one of the boats that was tied to the docks.
We unhooked the fish, I was lucky to get a good hook set right in the corner of its mouth, because if the fish would have swallowed the bait, I would have never even seen it. We got it out of the net, and we laid it down onto one of the measuring tapes. It measured 36 inches! I leaped out of the boat, and I ran up to the cabin shouting at everyone telling them to get down to the pier. Shortly after, everyone was down at the pier including the camp site owner! We marveled at the fish for a short time, took some pictures, and then I walked about knee deep into the water. Then I lowered the beast down in the water and moved the fish gently back and forth to get the water back circulating in its gills. The fish slowly started to move its slimy body, and then it slowly swam away. There goes that giant, beautiful, and very slimy fish.
After I released the fish, I went back up to the cabin to get ready for the day. The time was now about 11 a.m. I needed to shower, and wash my hands to get the slime off of them. My fingers were all shredded as well. When we were taking picture I accidentally slid my hand too far in its gill, and got my fingers cut on the fish’s razor sharp teeth.
Later on that day I went to the lodge, and the owner walked up to me, and he told me. We had been catching more fish off of the dock than people were catching when they went out in their boats. He also said that he was going to put a picture of me holding my fish on their website’s blog. I thought that was really awesome. Later on I also was in the kids fishing contest and I took first place with an 8 ¾ inch sunfish. I definitely want to go back and catch some more Northern Minnesota monsters.