Another Trip That Proves that Fishing Trips are Definitely Not Vacations
My old fishing partner, Eddie Reickhoff , used to say, “Davie, Maybe we should have taken up golf.” I’m beginning to think that he was right. When my sunglasses fell apart upon arrival at Pickwick, I chuckled, and thought that if this was going to be the worse thing that happens to me on this trip, it will be a good one, but I should know better. It was only the beginning of a trip that involved bailing out the boat at midnight, fire extinguishers, skinned up knees, and food outages such as country fried steak, tenderloin, onion rings, diet coke, and other essentials. Yet, we managed to get through it and had a good time in doing so.
In fishing you are either too early, too late, and it is always too hot or too cold, too clear or too stormy, pre-front or post-front.. This trip we were waayyy too early, as it was still mid-summer in the deep south. The pleasure boaters hadn’t gotten the memo to put their toys away, and with water temperatures in the upper seventies, kids were still swimming in the lake. We fished in shorts and short sleeved shirts both morning/day and evening sessions. It got dark early, giving me very little time for my time-honored mid-day fishing trip nap. Even with a lot of menu items in short supply we still ate good, with full breakfasts that normally included grits and biscuits and gravy. We had ribs at the Rib Cage, and I had catfish on two occasions, and hamburger steak, smothered in gravy once. Since we had to do the football game on Friday night, Paul and I only got to stay through Thursday. Mark and Andy remained to fish the tailwater for a couple of extra days.
It seems like my poor beleaguered, 2004 Bass Tracker, has always taken on water, but in recent years the problem has gotten worse, and on this trip, it once required that we bail it out, and on another, put it on the trailer for the night, until I could negotiate a lift slip, shown at right, which alleviated our problem. The bilge pump takes care of the issue when out on the water. IF anyone knows someone who welds aluminum, and can patch the main center seam, I’m all ears.
