Don't judge a fish by the fight

Indiana Walleye member Bobby Adkins learns a valuable lesson during the last 

tournament on Brookville when he catches a 7.5lb walleye.

To give you a little insight to this story, earlier this spring Bobby and I and others from Indiana walleye took a trip to Lake Erie to do some night fishing on the reefs. We had a pretty good trip catching 32 walleye averaging 4lbs +. But unfortunately Bobby had lost 2, 5lb+ walleye at the side of the boat. So he left Lake Erie not getting a 5lbr which was his big fish goal. Now Bobby was getting plenty of ribbing from myself and others, so much so, that every time he missed a walleye we would yell out  "swing and a miss ". Bobby kept his head held high and systematically went after his big fish goal. He and his wife Katie entered a few of the Brookville Tournaments for us to hear plenty of stories about the big one that got away.

But then came July 8th, a friend ( Rusty ) had posted how he just got his biggest walleye ever the day before at Monroe Reservoir. So Bobby and Katie decided to head down to Monroe and try their luck. They were going along when Bobby hooked a hawg and told Katie " get the net this one is big"...got it up next to the boat and saw that he barely had it hooked and thought " this cannot be happening to me again " ...she made one stab with the net and got him. He finally got the monkey off his back, he got a 6.5lb walleye.

Now we fast forward to the the Brookville tournament held on 8-27-05. The following is in Bobby's own words:

After all the big walleyes that I lost early in the year I did my best to lose this one.... so here is the story and the lesson to be learned ......It was about 2:00 and after fishing 5 hours and only boating about a dozen catfish and 3 large carp I get a hit and it about yanks my pole out of the boat....I grab the rod set the hook and instantly the fish takes about 50 yards of line with the drag just screaming...I tell Loren that we are going to have to chase this d**m carp down before it takes all of my line... in the process of that drag screaming run he crosses one of Loren's lines and we get tangled so I sat the pole down and went about the business of untangling the lines...that took a minute or so ....finally pick the pole up and start to crank the big fish in. I get him close enough to the boat for him to see it and off he goes on another drag screaming run......all this time I am still thinking d**m ugly carp. This fish made 3 total drag screaming runs each one getting a little shorter...finally I get him close enough to the boat to just get a glimpse of him and now he starts rolling just like a big catfish. So I tell Loren that this isn't a carp it is a huge catfish come over and take a look. Now I finally got him up to the boat and got a good look and as I was passing out I muttered the words get the net its a huge walleye. I am sure there were other words mixed in with that but I cannot remember...anyway Loren netted the big guy and that is the end of the story. The lesson to be learned from this is ...no matter how much you think the big fish is a carp or catfish or whatever, fight it like a trophy until you know for sure what it is. I got very lucky landing that fish yesterday as I made numerous rookie mistakes all because I was sure it was a carp and didn't care all I wanted was my line back. So after losing many large fish early in the year when I don't feel I did anything wrong I guess things have a way of evening out..........what a pig it was .... B-lou  

2 lessons to be learned

Don't judge a fish by the fight

And no matter what....keep trying, things will work out.

Submitted by Doug Burkhead