Fencepost
I have to thank my Uncle, Dave Weiss, for the name “Fencepost”, when referring to BIG fish. While fishing with him years ago in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, we were casting for northern pike from a canoe on a back country lake. All of a sudden, while retrieving his bait near the canoe he looked down and saw what amounted to a MONSTER northern following behind. The fish passed underneath the canoe and swam off to the other side when it sank down to the depths. My uncle’s descriptive exclamation,”It’s a Fencepost !”, stuck with me for these many years. I will never forget the chill I got when I saw that fish (that looked as long as the canoe!) pass directly under us. This song, about a mythical MONSTER MUSKIE, still gives me goose bumps. I hope it has that effect on you too.
Lyrics
I was sitting in the “Moccasin” the other day, looking at
the fish that were on display
Just me and a friend, we were drinking a beer
When I overheard a story that I wanted to hear
So I leaned a little closer and I listened to the man
Tell a tale ‘bout a fish known around this land
As “Fencepost”
The story says that several years ago
Lived a muskie guide name of “Buckskin Joe”
Went out early one morning just to try his luck
But he never returned to his pickup truck
And the search party’s say they found his fishing hat
In the water by a bog near the habitat
Of “Fencepost”
Well I heard some other talk in the bars around
That she’d go “85” if she weighed a pound
She was long as an oar and there ain’t no doubt
That you’d surely be the loser if you had a “bout”
And all the guides I heard that lived around these lakes
Said there’ll never be no one that’s ever gonna take
Old “Fencepost”
My curiosity was a running real high
I just had to go out and give that fish a try
Got up early next morning at the crack of dawn
Had my boat all loaded and my motor on
And when I launched her in the water, I had but one wish
Was to get me a glimpse of that record fish they call
"Fencepost"
I threw jerkbaits, surface, and bucktails too
But she just wouldn’t hit anything I threw
I beat the water to a froth, I couldn’t throw no more
Then I rowed my boat up and down the shore
When I spotted that place and my blood run cold
Was the place in thawt story that I’d been told
Where it happened that day several years ago
between that muskie guide named “Buckskin
Joe”
and “Fencepost”
I dragged my “jerk” cross that sunken bog
When the bait stopped dead, like I’d snagged a log
I reefed back hard and my heart beat fast
Could it finally be I hooked that fish at last
When she started to move and that’s when I saw
That big dorsal fin and that toothy jaw
Of “Fencepost”
We battled for what seemed an hour or two
And I realized I had to pay my dues
My reel was singing and my rod was bowed
I didn’t even think I had a prayer she’d hold
But even though my chances they seemed remote
Some how or another I worked her toward the boat
Old “Fencepost”
I reached down and slipped the gaff through her jaw
Then I looked into her evil eyes in awe
But she wasn’t done, in spite of her old age
She exploded in a wild muskie rage
Smashed my boat with her tail, broke my rod in half
The water was flying and so was the gaff
From “Fencepost”
When the spray finally cleared and I looked down
That big muskellunge weren’t no where around
Then I spotted her down in that brown water murk
From her alligator jaws hung my busted jerk
She was heading for the bottom, far as I could tell
She’s possessed by the devil, swimming straight for Hell
Old “Fencepost”
Well I heard another story just the other day
They said old “Fencepost” had passed away
That she washed up on shore when the ice went out
But that story ,my friend, I just gotta doubt
Cause last night I saw a big one “roll” off that bog
And from the size of the “boil” it was that MONSTER HAWG
They call “Fencepost”
