Fishy tales straight from the boat
- Bob Hanna: Someday
- July 15, 2020
- 1104
So in my last column, if you remember, a friend of mine called to see if I wanted to go to Lake Erie for fishing the following day. So we did. End of story.
No, really I thought I would wait to write the story now, two weeks later, so as most fishing stories go, the longer the wait, the longer the fish were, the fish multiplied in the cooler (didn’t that happen in the Bible?) and the parts of the story that you forgot, you just make up anyway.
We decided to go up to Port Huron the night before instead of getting up that early (I’m retired, remember) and stayed at a very nice place called the Our Guest Inn. It was nice and very clean.
About 6 a.m. we headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf to check in to board the Miss Cindy, one of three charter boats that at this time is running at limited capacity due to the coronavirus restrictions. Made it kind of nice to have some room.
What also made it nice (you all know me) is that we got to meet new people and share stories. Imagine that. We had a young lady, 7 years old, on board with her dad, as well as an 84-year-old gentleman (who actually fell on board but is OK). With 16 fishermen and two crew, we set out a few miles, but the fishing was slow.
As I said, a lot of this is new to me, but I love new adventures. As I understand, in order to “drift fish,” you need a slight “roll” of the waves to make it good. And did you know fish can see colors underwater? They kept yelling, “What color lure are you using?” So everyone changed to that color. I’m gonna have to try that with hunting. “What color arrows are you using?” Of course by that time all the deer are gone because you’re yelling in the woods.
After a while we got word that a huge school of walleye were hitting near West Sister Island. This, by itself, was intriguing: to learn all the island names, how far we were from Canada, wind direction and water temperatures. I learned a lot.
When we anchored in over the school, the boat went crazy. As each fisherman yelled, “Fish on,” the ship’s mate would run back and forth, helping to net the fish. We did catch some other types of fish as well but ended up with about 70 walleye.
As for me, well, I caught two legal walleye (15-inch is minimum), but the experience was more than worth it.
Now for the fishy tales (which are both true). As the ship’s mate was running around, trying to net the walleye at the back of the boat, he accidentally dropped the net into the lake. I think he’s done it before, as he immediately grabbed a fishing rod and, at about 35 feet, cast his lure right into the net, pulling it back into the boat with the fish still in it. Everyone cheered.
But the best story of the day came when I went to cast my lure. I had borrowed a pole from my friend and had to learn to “flip cast” my lure because the boat had a roof over our heads. As I went to “flip” the pole, my hand hit the railing and the pole went into the lake.
Now take into account that we were drifting backward, so the pole should have drifted away from the boat. As the captain came rushing back, he tried to cast a line out to retrieve the pole. I told him that the pole actually went straight down.
A few seconds later, the father of the little girl, who had been fishing directly behind me, said he was “snagged on something.” As he reeled in his line, his lure was connected to my lure. Amazing.
His line had been under the boat, and my lure was intercepted by his. The captain kept pulling on the line, and as the “bail” had been open, he pulled in the whole spool of line with the pole still attached. All the fisherman said that was a miracle.
Anyway, keep Taryn and me in your prayers as the dream is about to come true. We are closing on the new log home and property in Kentucky, and our children are helping us move our “stuff.”
Our “Someday” has come. We dedicate the new property to our God with his blessing. We will continue to seek new adventures wherever he leads. Praise God for new beginnings.