From Ronnie Garrison,
Your Guide to Freshwater Fishing.
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During a visit last week with Linda’s aunt and cousins they started talking about trips to lakes in Missouri. One memory was of a canoe they fished from and played with growing up. They talked about turning it over, filling it up with water and trying to sink it. With the foam floatation it would not go under even when full of water.

That brought back many fond water related memories to me. Dad bought a 12 foot fiberglass jon boat in the early 1960s, our first boat. I spent many hours fishing from it on local ponds and even at Clarks Hill. We had an electric trolling motor and no gas motor so the range was not far, but I covered a surprisingly large area of the lake in it. At least it was a big area to me back then even though I never got our of Germany Creek, one of the smaller creeks on the lake.

On hot summer days it was not unusual for us to end up in the water on a fishing trip. We would take everything out of the boat at the campsite and then take the boat a few yards off the shore for our swimming platform. Invariably the boat got turned over and we would spend time going under and coming up with our heads in the air pocket trapped inside. I think we scared mom with that little trick several times.

It was funny sitting in the boat full of water and it would slowly go under the water to the edges and then stop sinking. From shore it looked like anyone in the boat was sitting in the water since you could not see the boat, but it was impossible sit that high.

If you turned the boat upside down and were real careful you could climb up on the bottom of it and jump off. At least that was the theory. Usually we slipped on the slick bottom or the boat moved, throwing us back into the water. Or one of us still in the water would shake the boat to make the one trying to climb out fall.

It is amazing we didn’t drown at some point.

Somewhere in the mid-1960s we acquired the use of a wooden boat with a 40 horsepower motor on it. We were actually able to ski a little behind that old boat if you used two skis and everything went just right. Usually we just plowed along behind the boat until our arms gave out.

One day I got the bright idea to tie a boat paddle to a rope and pull behind the boat with it. With the rope tied in the middle of the paddle and me holding the paddle in both hands, one on each side of the rope, I was able to use it like a fin. I could dive down and cruise along the bottom a foot or so off it, checking out a lot of ground I could not cover just by swimming. I spent a lot of time doing that until I found a two foot high stump one day.

The stump scared me without hurting me but that pretty much put an end to underwater exploration.

I learned to water ski when I was 12 and immediately fell in love with it. For four years I depended on friends and unsuitable boats for my ski trips, then dad bought a 16 foot Larson with a 120 hp outdrive motor. That was a fantastic ski boat back then and I spent hundreds of hours behind it and driving it for my friends.

The warm weather last week reminded me of a January in the late 1960s. It was probably 1967 or 68 since I was still in high school but had a driver’s license. Saturday was warm but much warmer weather was predicted for Sunday. Harold, my best friend and I made a pact to be the first ones to ski that year the next day - January 21 if I remember right.

We fidgeted through church and headed to the lake as soon as services were over. Just our luck, as we drove up at the boat club a friend from high school was just taking off, beating us by a few minutes. Harold got into the boat and I stood on the bank in shallow water, standing on one foot with the ski on the other and holding the rope.

When Harold gunned the boat I was able to take off and follow the friend around the lake, being the second one to ski. After a few minutes I came back and landed on the bank, running out of the ski and staying dry above the knees.

Harold was not so lucky. He took off from the bank fine but I hit an underwater stump on the first pass around the lake and the boat stalled. He was a pretty shade of blue when I got the boat back around to him and helped him in. That ended our winter ski trip.

Now, skiing hurts too much so I just stick with fishing.