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Acrobatic walleye gives kayaker a tasty surprise
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| By: Jeremy A. Jensen |
August 06, 2008 |
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There's an old saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." But what happens when the fish decides to eliminate the middle man?
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That's exactly what happened to Toby Solberg, of Pound Ridge, N.Y., a summer resident of Chetek. Solberg was paddling along the shoreline on Pokegama Lake July 27 with friend Barry Bachman, of Stillwater, Minn., when he was taken by surprise. As the pair passed below the Pokegama Bridge into Chetek Lake a walleye jumped out of the water and landed between Solberg's legs in his kayak.
"I looked down and couldn't believe what I was seeing," Solberg says. "This 3-pound, 19-inch walleye just jumped out of the water and landed between my legs. I've been coming here for years and I've never seen or heard anything like it."
Solberg admits it was the easiest catch an angler could hope for.
"I didn't have to worry about tangled lines, lost lures or anything," Solberg says, laughing. "All I had to do was paddle along the shoreline, wait a little bit, and there it was."
After snapping a few photos of the event, Solberg was presented with a quandary. When asked what he did with the fish, Solberg replies he did the only thing he could.
"We ate it," Solberg says. "It tasted great. Why not?"
Solberg adds that his experience shows that there are good-sized walleye in the Chetek chain.
"Looks like those walleye-stocking efforts are paying off," Solberg says, referring to the Walleyes for Chetek program. "If there's any more like him out there, they're welcome in my kayak anytime."
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©The Chetek Alert 2010
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