| The Fog | |
|
by: James Hert
Getting
the coffee first thing in the morning is my job.
I’m not sure how that worked out, but it is somehow universally agreed.
No matter who I go fishing with, it always turns out that I am the one
who goes and gets the coffee. Weird!
So I threw on a coat and ran to the lobby where they
had one of those big coffee urns and got us some coffee.
I
settled down with my coffee and turned the TV on to the weather channel. The forecast was for wind and rain all day and a high of
about forty degrees—not very conducive to starting that feeding binge we were
hoping for. But the wind was going
to be out of the south. Where we
wanted to fish, off the tip of Catawba Island, would at least be protected from
the wind.
Fred
was willing to stay in bed and sleep all day, I think, but I convinced him that
it couldn't rain all day. We could
fish in the rain, but cold wind and rain was a little more than we had bargained
for. We had rain gear but in those
days, neither of us had the good Gore-Tex and neoprene stuff we do now.
"We
should take our time, eat breakfast, drive out to the launch, and see if the
rain doesn’t let up some by then," I proposed.
"You’re
the eternal optimist, but okay," Fred said. "I know before this day is
out you’re going to have me out there in the wind and rain, and I ain't going
to like it!" I noticed the
corner of his mouth turned up just a bit as he tried to give me a dirty look.
"Oh,
come on! Let's get you more coffee
and some breakfast." I grinned
at him.
After
breakfast, we hooked up the boat in a steady downpour and drove out to the
launch site. Due to the resurgence
of the quality and popularity of Lake Erie walleye fishing, the State Park had
built a huge boat launch facility at the little town of Catawba Island. The town isn’t really on an island but on a peninsula
connected to the mainland, so I’m not sure how it got that name.
It’s tip extends out into Lake Erie toward the little island resort of
Put-In-Bay, a fun place to go in the summer if you like lots of boats, lots of
drinking, and lots of girls in bikinis! I
don’t know anybody who likes these things, though.
We just go for the walleye fishing.
From
there, it was a short boat ride out to the Bass Islands and the rocky reefs that
make that part of the lake such a great walleye fishery.
While we were siting at the boat launch looking out at the lake and
wondering what to do, the rain let up a bit.
So we got out of the truck to smell the air and ponder what to do next.
It wasn't raining very hard, and the wind was fairly light for that time
of year.
"Let's
go for it!" I said.
“Get
bent!” Fred snorted. Then he got that look that meant he knew when he was
beat. "Okay, We came all this
way, we should at least give it a go. If
we get soaked and cold we’ll come back in, right?"
"Sure,
I don't want to freeze and be miserable all day either."
