Pat and Julie have been ribbing each other for the past two years about the fact that neither of them, now in their 7th years at the lodge, have ever landed a trophy pike! They both had set a goal last season to catch one, but weren't able to land that lunker that would have made the other one jealous. This year, they came to Aikens with the same goal in mind. The night of August 4th was a beautiful night. Most of the staff had decided to have a large volleyball game. However, Pat had experienced some great fishing during the day with his clients (Mr. Orazio Nastase and Neil Edwards of PA), and he knew the bite would be hot again that night. Pat was able to convince Colin that the fishing would be worth the time, and so Colin jumped in a boat and left the others to their game. It didn't take long for Pat's prophecy to come true! They headed straight to "Colin's Cruise" and started cranking. Pat was actually using a Williams Whitefish spoon, a lure that had already landed his clients some large pike this year. After boating a couple of small pike rather quickly, the monster hit! The 44" pike twisted and turned and Pat was trying to stay calm during the fight... but he knew this was the one and every headshake made his knees buckle. Pat finally was able to take a sigh of relief and extreme joy once that fish made it's way into Colin's net! After snapping enough pictures to fill up a magazine, Pat released the fish and quickly proceeded to follow it in the lake! He was so excited that he just had to do something wacky! News of the fish quickly made its way through camp. Julie, less than impressed that she had been beat out by Pat for that pike, was determined to not let him keep all the glory for very long. The following night, she went fishing with Pit and David to troll the "Cruise". Back during our break, Julie had picked up the X-Rap Extreme Jointed Shad to troll for pike. She took it out of the box, and on the second pass of the night, it paid off! After the hookset, the fish did not move. Julie went from disappointment by thinking it was a snag, to complete ecstasy when that first headshake made the drag scream! Julie did not waste any time reeling in the fish, and kept pumping until that girthy fish slid into the net! She wasn't sure if it would make the necessary length of 41" to be a Master Angler. When she measured it, she let out a sigh that made Pit's heart drop! No trophy? No way! She was just hoping that it would be bigger than 44"! The official length was 43". Two nights, two fish of a lifetime! Way to go! I guess now the last one to catch a trophy perch is a rotten egg!

Two staffers reach their "Holy Grail"!