False Fenton said, “ Bob, I think We Need A Bigger Boat” June 20th 1987 Poe’s: Proposal for new topwater lure, The “ Giant Jackpot” Designer: Bob Mehsikomer eptember 24, 2006 was the start: the day it was created, if you will, and the day my topwa-ter fishing was thrown into a tailspin. But it didn’t start at all like I had planned. I created the Giant Jackpot because of a situation my cameraman, my guest and I witnessed on a very damp, drizzly day while fishing Osbourne Bay on Eagle Lake. Our target was muskie and the had located a real monster, one we eventually named Ethel. Why Ethel, you ask? Well, being battered by every fine lady on the planet named Ethel, I’ll tell you. The only lady that name, Ethel, was a very angry, very solitary, downright cantankerous old lady with a mean streak - much like the fish I’m about to tell you about and truly one to fall in love with.

False O n that memorable dreary day we had returned to a location at which I had a monster fol-low the day before. We worked up to and through the area with patience and pure intent. However, she was not to be found. How could a monster such as this have been absent under these incred-ible conditions? That was the question provoking me, where was she, what was wrong with this picture? Had she eaten and was simply non responsive? Had another angler stung her or even worse stuck her? Well, they are what they are and they beat to their own drum. No one I have ever met muskie fishing has ever seen a muskie reading the silly books we print. Therefore I felt we were about to enter another chapter. The chapter of the missing fish, if you will. We continued around the point where we had encountered her the day before, covering every object that could possibly have held her. Then, just as we let our guards down, my M& G spinnerbait had what looked to be about a five- pound smallmouth swing on it. I instantly sped up my retrieve so as not to catch this unintended fish. The last thing I wanted was a smallie thrashing in the water disturbing our stealth approach. I wanted that monster. Then it happened, I saw for the first time the actual creature that was behind my bait. It wasn’t a smallie at all! What I had witnessed was in fact the mouth of this incredible mon-ster opening behind my lure. It was massive! Because we shoot every cast of every day while in the process of shooting the Simply Fishing Television series, we have a camera trained on one of two lures being thrown at all times. And because we always give undivided attention to the topwater lure over anything else, the camera was not on my lure being it was an M& G. Instead it was following my guest’s Poe’s Awaker, which should have been eaten. If it had, I could still view it today on very large monitors as opposed to only seeing it in my mind. What happened next was the real de-pressor. My cameraman Brian, who was focused on the Awaker, realized after