Making memories

This is a story of what it is like to spend some time with my family. There is never a dull moment, and this is just a snippet of a few days with just my two almost teenage boys and myself. I hope you enjoy.

First a short backstory. My father is retired and had too much time on his hands, after myself and my folks moved to the south Mom and I decided to get the ol’ man a fishing boat. The area they moved to has endless lakes loaded with monster bass and he always enjoyed fishing, so it seemed like the best option. Well, he discovered a completely different hobby shortly after getting the boat, so the boat sat.

My kids were coming down to visit and I was researching fishing charters when it dawned on me, it would be silly to pay to fish when we have a boat just collecting dust! In a joint decision with the boys, we decided to just take the boat and explore new places and hopefully catch some fish. Dad and I took a couple of days and prepped the boat, even taking it for a test run. Everything was as it should be, nothing could go wrong, right?

The first stop with the boat was this canal Dad and I just found on the test run, it connected a shallow lake to a nice deep lake. The best part was it was full of fish. It’s shallow, full of weeds, grasses, and lilies with a nice canopy to keep us out of the hot summer sun. we had a blast, my youngest and I both caught big bass, mine completely by accident just dangling my minnow off the edge of the boat while I troll us through the weed patches. He caught a nice one on what he calls a rooster tail, I call it a spinner, but these kids speak an entirely different language and it makes me feel old.

I knew we had a chance of storms and it was getting late, hot, and we were hungry. The car and trailer were on the other side of the lake, so we started heading back. There was one cloud just to the southwest, I told the boys “That one’s going to be a storm.” We made it out of the canal and had one stretch of lilies to get through before we could throttle up and get home. There were boats everywhere, turns out a fishing tournament had started while we were in the backwaters. That’s when it happened. I got the prop tangled up in some weeds and the boat went no more. There was a park downwind from us so I decided to troll over there and make the dreadful call to Dad.

We had 30 minutes until the park I was at closed its gates and Dad only lived a few blocks away. And the phone rang, he says he is at the park and doesn’t see me. Of course, he went to where my vehicle was. The entire point was that I couldn’t get the boat to the car, so we have to get the car to the boat. Anyhow he finally made it and decided to lone dog it across the lake while I had to go get my trailer out of rows of professional fisherman’s trucks and fancy trailers from the tournament. I was just backing up to the ramp looking for Dad when the first crack of lightning came. Down here sometimes lighting comes before rain, heck the sun was still out. By some miracle it had just started raining after getting the boat to land.

I am blessed to have such amazing people in my life, a recent friend I made here just happened to know someone with a prop and a local at the baitshop knew a guy that could fix the one I broke. So It all worked out, that is until day two.

A new prop is on the boat and we are fishing again, same lake, different boat launch. We are cruising in wide open water in the middle of the lake when suddenly we hit weeds. I had done it again. This time the boat could limp, so we kept on fishing. Dad was literally at the store getting the old prop fixed when I called home to break the bad news. I have not gone back to the lake since, and it’s an amazing lake to fish which breaks my heart.

New day, working boat, but we fight the weather, almost getting caught in another pop-up storm more than once in just a couple of days. We check out some new water and find some awesome spots loaded with nature, fish, and good times. My kids aren’t used to the wildlife down here, and I must admit it can be a little terrifying at times. It is nesting season for the gators, and we had two different gators strike the boat while floating around casting lures.

Grandpa took the youngest to the range for the day so my oldest and I took the boat to check out this creek my buddy told me about. We were just floating around chasing gar and bass, there was a full canopy with dense woods on one side and a wooded island on the other. It was like floating in the jungle as we navigated the fallen trees from last year’s storms. That’s when the noise came from the island. I grew up on a farm, I knew exactly what it was…a herd of wild hogs. We started drifting close to the island when I heard, “Dad we are getting close to the noise! We have to turn around!” The poor kid was terrified. We never could make it down the whole creek, the downed trees just became too much to get through.

In the end, we caught some fish. I learned what not to do in a boat and I think the kids now have a greater respect for nature. We saw every step of the food chain while on the lakes and it happen to be the time of year for baby everything to be out. I am out dozens of lures, bobbers, and tackle to the trees and rocks. The kids made up for that by getting a free tackle box loaded with lures from the bait shop owner who was just paying it forward for someone. We made new friends, saw new sights, and learned a great deal.

I think it took me three days to recover from that round with the boys and I can’t wait to do it all over again. In the long run, even the terrible memories become cherished. It’s all worth it, every second of life.