I spend most of my time obsessed with the next adventure, so
I thought why not start a blog. After
all, I am very poor with spelling and punctuation and at times you will have to
read for what I mean and not the words that you see before you. So writing a blog makes perfect sense. I am not sure if this will be nothing more
than journaling in the cloud and if that is the case then I am OK with that. At best this will be somewhere in between
stories from Pat McManus and anything that would have any useful
information. However, if it is ever more,
then I think an introduction is in order.
I am not quite sure how personal to get, but here goes. I live in Milwaukee WI and make a living as
an accountant. I am married to a wife
who mostly puts up with my adventures, but wants no part in them and I have
three children. My daughter is 13, my
two sons are 10 and 6. I usually stick
to specific kinds of adventures. You
would think by now I would be an expert, but I like to try new things and so we
seem to always have something interesting to research or learn and then get it
wrong somehow. Most of my adventures
revolve around fishing either with the guys, cousins, kids or often solo. One of my best friends and fellow adventurers
came up with the blog title, I think it fits well. I should be able to fill the pages with
current adventure stories, thoughts about upcoming trips and reminiscing on
past adventures that I have never recorded.
Like any good fisherman, I am sure the tales will be less reliable the
longer the time between then and now.
I do not own a boat, not a motor boat at least. I prefer the canoe or a kayak. Well I should qualify that a bit, 20-25 years
ago when I was first starting out as an accountant I purchased a large boat
that I thought I could take out on Lake Michigan. I dreamed about taking my friends and family,
maybe becoming an actual expert at catching salmon and trout. I would be admired by all, as this is how
dreams go. So a friend from college had
a friend whose family tinkered with boats I guess you would say. They lived in Tomah WI on Tomah Lake and had
pieced together a 22 ft. boat with a small cabin and motor and down-riggers and
fishing equipment and an extra kicker motor to fish on Lake Michigan, probably
succumbing to the same dream I had now that I look back upon it. I am sure you can understand that a 22 ft
boat might be a bit large for Tomah lake, and well if you check on the a map
Tomah WI is a long way from Lake Michigan, so even though they might have had
fun with the dream as I did, putting it toward reality was effort. They had trailered the boat from Tomah to
Kewanee WI to launch it and try to find some fish. I think they made arrangements with a local
bait shop to park it for the season in Kewaunee so they did not have to trailer
it each trip. Well after a few trips maybe
a season or 2 I think the dream might have crashed back to earth for them. I on the other hand lived in Green Bay, I
could run to Kewaunee any night after work, be fishing and sleep in the cabin
get up at first light, 4:00 am in the summers in Green Bay, the next morning
fish some more and the drag myself into work.
This is the kind of dedication you must have if you are going to become
an expert … admired by all.
Anyhow I set up a date to meet up with the friend of the
friend. I can’t remember the name let’s
just make one up, how about Fred. We
planned for an outing on Lake Michigan, this way I could try out the boat and
equipment and see if I wanted to purchase it.
I must have had my mind made up on the purchase already, but a fishing
outing is always welcome. I had met Fred
before while hunting for ducks on Tomah Lake, we were around the same age and I
would generally describe him as the type of person that would give dressed and
frozen ducks as Christmas presents, or so legend had it. The outing would include Fred and me and
Fred’s younger brother. The day like
most days that you plan a weekend fishing outing in advance was windy and cold,
with intermittent rain. I met Fred early
at the Kewaunee boat launch so we could get out and find some fish. Fred was not quite as aggressive as I like to
be with getting out on the water. We
dinked around with fishing poles and motors and down-riggers and whatever
else. All things that I would have
thought we could have done while we were chasing fish. Sometime around 11 or so we headed out. Fred drove the boat and looking back it would
have been a good idea for me to get some experience handling the driving. My experiences with boats as a kid were row
boats and maybe a small motor where you are holding the throttle handle to make
you turns. I had certainly never driven
anything with a console in it. I think we trolled around a bit in the middle
of nowhere, I don’t know if we saw another boat I think we might have been out
only a short time because the 25 horse kicker motor that we were going to use
trolling was not working properly. This
should have been a sign right? Soon
Fred decided it was best to head in and grab lunch at a bar that he knew had
good burgers. We could try to go back
out in the afternoon. So we had burgers
and few beers after all this is what 20 something’s do.
A few calls to dad, Fred’s dad, and a new plan was hatched
to grab the kicker motor and a switch it onto a smaller boat and head out on
the Wolf River near Weyauwega. Little
did I know it at the time, but since it seemed to Fred (or Fred’s dad) like he
had a live one on the hook for the big boat maybe I would like to by the small
boat too. This offer came up later. So we dropped off the big boat and I don’t
remember where we picked up the smaller boat, but soon we were fishing on the
wolf river. It was late afternoon by now
and inland the weather was much nicer even sunny. Looking back, I don’t think Fred had much
patients for fishing because we only fished for a short while catching a small
northern and maybe a white bass I think the kicker motor still did not work
well that we swapped out to the small boat.
I think Fred did leave me wanting more.
I turned down the small boat but bought the larger boat and kicker
motor, after a tune up of course.
You think the story might end there, oh no. So after taking out a loan and paying for the
boat I was real excited to try it out. So
a weekday night after work my plan was to launch the boat rent a slip for the
week at the marina and spend the weekend fishing. I thought it was best to fish by myself until
I became and expert … admired by all. So
I trailered the boat from the bait shop to the launch with my little ford
ranger truck. That went OK but it sure
was big in back of a ford ranger. I got
the boat backed into the water and what do you think the first mistake of any
new boat owner might be? Yes I had forgotten to put the plug in the boat. So I pulled it back out, let all the water
drain out, put the plug back in and launched.
The launch was on the river on one side of the road and the marina was on
the other. So you had to motor under the
bridge on the road to get out in the water.
As it most of the time is along the big lake, it was windy. Not ever having worked a boat with a console
and fighting the wind and maybe a current I was soon heading straight for the
pillars on the bridge. I was panicking,
now I could see sinking my boat on the first outing. I was afraid to goose the engine to get going
in a different direction and a boat floating in the current and being pushed by
the wind will not let you stop and collect yourself. Soon I abandoned the console and I jumped to
the front just to push off the pillars and somehow I made it through and into an
end slip on the other side after bouncing of a few things along the way, no
other more expensive boats fortunately.
That is where I left the boat for the night. You might think this was the end, oh no.
The next day after work again I came back it was late, but I
just thought I should try to get a comfort level with the boat so I went back
to the marina, I remember laying down my truck keys on the side of the boat, I
would call it a gunnel in the canoe, I remember messing with the motors,
leaning over the back of the boat to check the props etc who know what else,
and I remember revving up the engines and engaging the motor, while the boat
was tied up in the slip. The boat seemed
to have plenty for power in the slip just not enough to handle the current and
the wind, at least with me driving too cautiously. I don’t remember much else but I do also
remember losing a set of keys that night, I still assume that they are at the
bottom of the Kewaunee marina in the first slip that I could bounce into. If
anyone finds them I don’t need them back since I no longer own that Ford
Ranger.
Somehow, I was able to get that boat back through the
pillars and back onto the trailer, but I was always afraid to take it back out,
it was always too windy. I never became
the expert Lake Michigan fisherman and I never became admired by all. At the end of the season I pulled that boat
back to my parent’s farm and that boat still sits on the trailer in the machine
shed. So technically I do still own a
motor boat. If anyone would like a boat
cheap I have one, barely used.
This is not how I thought this introduction would go, but I
guess the rest of the introduction will have to come through other stories over
time.
1 Heavy Canoe
