Thursday, January 31, 2013

An Angling Miscellany with Gary L. Miller

This is not a story about the missing link. It’s a story about not missing your lynx. Too cute? Ok, let’s get serious. Man spears lynx.

This is a true story that took place back in February of 1955.

A Traverse City man, Perry Ransom, and three of his buddies went up into the Algoma country north of the Canadian Soo to do some ice fishing on Ontario’s Trout Lake. The fishing was slow and they only had four trout between them so Perry decided to call it a day. He started off for camp ahead of the others carrying the ice spud.

Along the trail he passed near a rocky ledge and suddenly a Canadian Lynx sprang at him from the outcropping. Instinctively Perry raised the spud defensively and the sharp chisel edge caught the big cat right behind the ear and killed it instantly. The lynx was a female measuring 55 inches long but weighing only 18 pounds.



A lynx that long and weighing so little must surely have been starving to death and ole Perry must have looked like a banquette to her. Fortunately for him he was an ace with the spud.

Ransom was an accomplished outdoorsman, taking many deer and spearing lots of big pike over the years. His luck held and he lived a long and fruitful life passing away in 1972 at the age of 80. Proof once again that God does not deduct from one’s lifespan time spent fishing or in this case spuding lynx.

-- Gary L. Miller

No comments: