
As many of you have surely noticed by reading our newsletter, the Greteman family and the Poja family have been coming to Aikens lake for a long time. Tom Greteman's first trip to Aikens was in 1953, and Mike Poja's first trip was in 1991. In fact, this marks the 5th occasion that they have been here simultaneously! There's an interesting story that surrounds their first encounter. It was September 1991, Tom was here with his two boys Kirby and Dan. The three of them were fishing for pike in the back bay. Dan had already caught and released a 44" pike. Kirby then hooked into another monster 44" pike on the following day. On the last day, Dan caught a 41.25" pike. However, this pike was having trouble regaining strength after a long fight. The three of them raced back to the dock to look for some assistance in getting this monster back into the lake. At that same moment, Mike Poja was stepping off the plane for his first visit to Aikens Lake! He was coming to scout the lake to see if he would like to bring his family and friends here. The first thing Mike saw was a quite a scene on the dock. The Gretemans, along with Gerry and some staff, were taking great care in reviving this monster pike back to health. Keep in mind that this was in en era where many of the big fish, at Aikens and elsewhere, were seldom returned to fight again another day. From that moment, Mike was hooked on Aikens! These two have become friends and what a great story to tell. We hope to see them both back here so we can do it again next year!