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Dateline 06/15/98
Boats We Have Known and Loved
Cathy Lewandowski (mommyfish)
Part 1 of 3
I started simply enough: I just wanted to fish the partly submerged trees about 50 yards from shore. I knew deep in my fishy soul that's where the fish were, the big ones, not just the little ones I usually caught. The only problem was I just couldn't cast that far. So, I bought my first boat. It was used, but I didn't care, it was mine, a 12- foot rowboat. It was rated for a motor, but I was only going 50 yards, so who needed a motor? Being a single mother at the time, my daughter and I went fishing often. We only fished a couple of hours at a time, but we had fun. And yes, the fish were in the trees.
After I remarried, my husband got a motor for the boat; the cove across the lake tempted him. Soon, we started exploring other lakes in the state. From this boat we ran our first trotline, but that's another fishtale. We could only stay out for a couple of hours before my daughter would want to go back for lunch, or because it was getting too hot. I soon found myself expecting another child, but we kept fishing. My husband modified the boat so I could have a comfortable swivel seat. The second child was due in June, and after a Memorial Day weekend of crawling in and out of a dome tent, I told my husband some changes had to be made. So we invested in a pop-up camper. I spent the rest of the summer on the shore, watching as my husband and daughter took the boat out on the lake.
The next season, we introduced our new son to the joys of fishing from the boat. It must have worked, for his first word was "ish". But it soon became obvious we would need a bigger boat. There was simply not enough room for all of us with tackle-boxes, rods, catch baskets, drinks, snacks, and toys for the kids to play with. So we went looking.
