Finding success while fishing in the dark

The sun had just dipped below the horizon when my rod doubled over. For the last half hour before sunset, we had battled several northern pike, but instinctively I knew this was our first walleye. White-tipped fins emerged from the black water below and my suspicions were confirmed. Joseph slid our net under the fish and we boxed our first keeper.

Repeating the same trolling path we added several more walleyes as darkness enveloped us. As is often the case with night fishing, we had the lake to ourselves.

We trolled in shallows, tight to shore. We passed an entire shoreline of enormous houses, sliding just off the ends of their docks. We took turns guessing what each homeowner did for a living. I pointed with the end of my rod “That looks like a pair of doctors live there.” Joseph nodded towards another, “That looks like an NHL player’s house.”

We slid quietly past in the darkness. We spied the NBA playoffs shining from the second level of a house that looked suspiciously like the new credit union in Cloquet. Joseph wanted his mom and me to buy one of the houses. A lesson on property taxes promptly followed.

We talked money. We discussed investments. Between walleyes, we talked about retirement.

Curiosity got the best of us. We looked up the listing we had just passed and discovered they want almost $1.5 million dollars for it. Joseph stared off into the darkness.

“So they pay like a grand a month in property taxes?” he finally asked.

On a night I set out to teach him how to break down a new body of water for walleyes, I was surprised we were discussing the cost-benefit analysis of economic decisions.

I had run my own analysis earlier that evening of even making the trip. Joseph didn’t get home until almost 7 p.m. from baseball practice. He had his mind set on fishing.

The pros:

1. We hadn’t fished for a while because of crummy weather.

2. The opportunity to fish a new body of water I wanted to explore.

3. The forecast called for a full moon and the walleyes should be on the chew.

The cons:

1. It was late already.

2. It was a school night.

3. I was tired.

We decided to steal the time, keep the game-plan simple, and hit the road. Looking back, the Ziploc bag of fresh walleye fillets was a nice surprise. The trip proved more successful measured by the father-son discussions shared in the darkness, just off the docks of strangers.

Strangers that we could only guess about their lives and how they spent their time. What dreams did they have? Did they work too hard? Did their huge houses bring them happiness?

We already knew what made us tick.

Another walleye buried in the net assured us we had made the right decisions.

Bret Baker is a lifetime resident of Cloquet. He is a proud husband, father, educator and outdoorsman. Bret began guiding fishing trips when he was 16 years old. Today, in his 40s, his passion is to introduce people to the tremendous outdoor adventures available in our region.