The Eyes Have It
Howard L.
Conover
My 16-year-old daughter was fishing by herself in a boat in front of our pier at the Maple View Resort on Pioneer Lake in Vilas County. I taught her to bring the lure alongside the boat when finishing each retrieve and saw that she was doing exactly that. My friend and I were on the pier and were loading our boat for a few hours of fishing. At this time, I heard my daughter start the outboard motor of her boat and saw that she was headed for our pier. Apparently, she was done fishing for a while, but I soon saw that she was coming in way too fast. She never throttled down and ignored the fact that I was yelling at her to slow down. She drove the boat onto the shore and a birch tree finally stopped her forward momentum. Completely ignoring my concern, my daughter jumped out of the boat and ran for the safety of our cabin. As she passed me, she yelled in a completely terrified voice, “EYES…TEETH…NO MORE!!!” After she calmed down, I learned that a huge musky followed right behind her lure with its mouth open as she finished her retrieve alongside her boat. As a long time musky fisherman, I wonder to this day just how big that musky was.
