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Silver Thread Testimonies I never have sat down and wrote a story, let alone something that is so crazy. In fact, if I was not the person involved, I would have a hard time believing the story. My wife and I were on our annual trip to Otter Tail Lake, northwest of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. We always get together with friends and family from Minnesota and friends from Illinois. On June 29 th , a friend and I decided to let his father-in-law sleep in. We were going out to fill the boat up with walleyes and come back to announce to the resort that yes, there are walleyes in the lake. The fishing had been so bad people were finding other actives to enjoy while on vacation. My friend started up his new boat and we sped off into the early morning hours in search of some meat for the table. We were on the lake for about two hours when my friend hooked into a Northern pike and quickly released it back in the deep blue water. I decided to change lures while my friend was putting on a fresh leach, so I reeled up my minnow and left it above the water so I would not get it caught on floating weeds and carefully placed my fishing pole in the bottom of the boat. I went to the front of the boat where my tackle box was and was getting out a lure when I heard a splash in the water. For some reason I had this gut-blasting feeling that my G. Loomis went into the drink. I put my lid down on my tackle box and said to my friend, "What just happened?" He looked me in the eye and said, "Ken, I heard the splash and looked over the edge and saw this Northern going down with your G. Loomis." I was sick! He motored me back to the resort and news traveled quickly through the resort and people were coming up and saying how sorry they were about me losing my favorite fishing rod. Another friend went to Fleet Farm and purchased some treble hooks and with an underwater camera, four of us motored to the spot that my friend had alertly marked with his GPS. We dropped off several markers to establish a path to drag the hooks. We did this for about four hours and decided to leave a marker and try again later in the week. We returned to the resort and were asked if we had any luck, and the guys running the camera said they thought they might have seen it but with the speed of the boat, the camera angle and all the weeds, it was impossible. They did mention seeing a Northern on the camera, but not much else. The group that I came up to the cabin with decided to go into town and play Bingo to try and win the $1,000 jackpot If one of them won, they planned on buying me a new G. Loomis, which really touched my heart. You really can't put a dollar amount on your favorite fishing rod, golf club, etc. I wandered around the resort like a lost soul. Most of the people were really nice except for my old friend who always likes to give me a bad time -- his idea was that I should go back out on the lake and throw my G. Loomis hat in and let the Northern wear it to go with my rod. Nice guy! Finally, around Thursday, I decided to enjoy the balance of my vacation and put the lost rod in the back of my mind. One of boats came in and reported that someone had picked our marker up, so the spot was lost. On Friday morning, the senior captain of the old boat rounded up my friend -- who also is his son-in-law -- and myself for one last big push to boat some walleyes. Rumor had it that the fish were in deep water, so we set forth on the mission to make the most out of a very bad fishing trip. We started out going to different deep shelves, and after a couple of hours my friend told his father-in-law to go over to where I had lost my fishing pole. We motored over to about the 50-foot mark and started to troll and proceeded until we got to around the 11- to 12-foot mark. My buddy alerted his father-in-law to stop the boat because he was hung up on the bottom. I thought this was odd because I was right next to him, and many times when one person gets hung, the other one does, too. I quickly reeled up to help him. As the boat backed up, he got free from the weeds or brush that had held his bait. He mentioned as he was reeling that whatever it was that had hung him up was coming along as well. I said jokingly, "Maybe you've got my G. Loomis on the other end." We were laughing until he blurted out, "I've got line on my hook." His father-in-law said, "My God, you might have just caught Ken's fishing rod!" As I watched my buddy, I noticed something in the water and turned my head in that direction There was a Northern in the water about two to three feet below the surface. I yelled, "That is the fish that stole my G.Loomis!" I quickly moved to the side of the boat and reached down into the water and grabbed the line that was floating on top and pulled it into the boat while the other two managed to land my water-soaked rod. I was so overjoyed that at first I shook their hands and next I hugged them. I was, to say the least, very emotional. I wanted to get a picture of the fish -- not that it was a monster --it was about 24 inches, but nobody in the boat had a camera. The slot limit on the lake is 30 inches, so I decided to let the fish go -- this time without the fishing pole. My friend called his wife on his cell phone, so when we got back to the resort, I heard the cheers from the boat! As we made our way down the dock, I saw that almost the whole resort had come down to greet us. As we answered questions, people wanted to take our picture and kept asking us to retell the story. Later, as I sat in my lawn chair and reflected, I realized just how lucky I was to have my friend pull out my fishing pole from a 13,000-acre lake after four days without a break or bend in the pole or reel I'm just glad the great Northern pike decided to give the G. Loomis back to me. Equipment recovered from Otter Tail Lake after being in the water for four days: G. Loomis Walleye Series – K. Wyatt
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