I am apologizing to myself and readers for not posting on this
blog for the past two years. If you ever followed this blog you might have
thought we hadn’t screwed up fishing for a while, or you thought we had killed
ourselves on the water. Neither of these are true, but we continue to never
lose hope!
I am going to relate matters in somewhat reverse order. This is
because I am old and I have found facts tend to fade quickly when time
intervenes. Our fishing this year had a few adventures.
With two really crappy springs, the time on the water was pretty
unusual. This year we added the stay at home order due to Covid-19. I don’t like
to go out alone, but Don and Paul were being extra cautious as was I. However,
I used all the delays to get the boat ready and eventually took it out alone for
a shakedown. This was to find all the stuff that is screwed up. I donned my
mask and put in at the newly replaced docks at the main ramp at Evergreen.
Fortunately everything worked, except the fishing. The heavy rains and cold
gave the lake the appearance of chocolate milk. The fish were visible on the
Humminbird, but nothing could entice a bite.
By the end of May, we finally got some warm weather and Don
agreed to go out with me. The social distancing was a potential problem. Initially
we planned to meet at the ramp since we couldn’t sit less than 6 ft apart in
the truck .We figured we could stay apart in the boat. Don finally decided to
take a chance and I picked him up at his home.
Time away from managing the boat causes both of us to forget
steps in prepping and launching the boat. Don had one of those senior moments
at the launch. We’ve all had them but usually one of us remembers.
We stage the boat before the ramp by removing the tie downs,
removing the motor toter bars from the motors, and unhooking the lights. On the
ramp, our practice is for one of us to tie a rope on the boat, unhook the boat
from the trailer winch, and hold the rope while standing on the dock while the
boat trailer is backed into deep enough water the float the boat. Our practice
isn’t always followed.
So I backed the boat down the ramp and waited for Don to grab
the rope and unhook the winch. I saw he was standing on the dock with the rope
and started to back down. Then I remembered that this was Don standing on the
dock so I yelled back, “Did you unhook the winch?” He hadn’t.
Somewhat embarrassed he said he’d get it. Unfortunately as he
stepped off the dock onto a rock covered in algae he went down face first into
the water. Fortunately it was not deep, but he was soaked.
He had told me earlier that he was unsure how cold the weather
would be on the water, so he had worn long underwear and long pants. I think
this kept him from getting cut, but it also made sure to absorb several gallons
of lake water.
I backed up the trailer and Don used the still attached winch to
pull the boat forward. I pulled up into the lot telling him I would take him
home for a change of clothes. As we reached the parking lot, Don decided the
weather was warm enough he didn’t need to change. After he refused several offers
to take him home, we relaunched the boat.
We motored out to 5 Fingers Cove to fish for walleyes (actually they are hybrid sauger and walleyes
called saugeyes, so I will explain it just once). The fishing
was pretty good for us.
Both Don and I caught several walleyes. We put all of them back
even though we had a couple of keepers. As we returned home, I wondered how he
would explain to his wife about the green stain on his clothes and the fragrant
smell of Evergreen water.
No comments:
Post a Comment