Prologue: Earlier in the week my ice fishing partner (Timbo) called me and asked if I wanted to go fishing on Saturday to which I said of OF COURSE followed by a quick qualification "if the Warden doesn't have plans for me
". I told him I'd bring my boat and the kids and we could link up somewhere and make a day of it. Timbo responds with a low and hushed "no no no, it will have to be just you and me and little Lav is he wants to come, this is an all business trip and I am going to take you in my boat". Now my curiosity is piqued so I ask "what are we going to target?"
BASS of course!!
OK cool (recalling the stories from ice fishing season about his bass tournament days and being almost semi pro I was like DUH, of course we'll be bass huntin')
We make some basic plans that we'll firm up later in the week and also see where the weather goes.
The same evening Timbo calls me at home and sounds almost panicked. I ask what's up and he says "I forgot and I have to warn you about my boat"
"Is it broke down? We can take mine, not a problem"
"No no no no, my boat is all tuned up and ready to go. I am a little worried about Little Lav....how much does he weigh now?"
Now I am starting to raise an eyebrow "I dunno, maybe 50 pounds or so"
"OK, he'll probably be allright but one of us will need to hold onto him"
"Really? Is it going to be rough Saturday?"
"No no no no, when we move between spots I like to move fast and I am a little worried about Little Lav bouncing or blowing out of the boat"
Keep in mind I have never seen Timbo's boat and have no clue what I am in for.
"What the hell kinda boat do you have?"
"It's a bass boat, not the biggest or fastest but if you have never been in a bass boat I have to tell you it might scare the boy. You might even want hearing protection because the sound of the wind in your ears can be deafening - we'll hit speeds up to 70mph or more."
I sip my beer and calmly reply "Really? I have never ridden in a bass boat sounds interesting."
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So the week wears on and Friday rolls around. I call Tim to firm up the plans and he says it looks good on his end, I agree, same for me, we agree to meet at his shop Saturday morning at 7am and will head up from there.
Lil Lav and I are like two kids on Christmas eve. Friday night we spool new line on all our poles and WD40 them up then load them in the truck. I laid out clothes for my Lil Lav (7 years old) and put him to bed early since he would be up and out the door at 0545.
5:00 next morning with coffee made, breakfast ready I get the boy up, dressed, fed and out the door. The Warden (aka my wife - we have 3 kids....well 4 if you count me
) packed a softside cooler loaded with goodness and the boat bag with more snacks and a change of clothes for Lil Lav and me just in case we need them. I toss the vittles in the truck and we're off.We arrive 30 minutes early and Tim is there early too, we're all pretty stoked. As Tim opens the overhead door his bass boat is revealed.....I don't know a ton about boats but this thing looks like it will be pretty damn effective with all its electronics, trolling motor and 150hp Merc crowning the stern. Tim shows us where to stow our stuff, we hook on and off we go.
We arrive around 8am and the launch is windy, foggy and the lake is all chopped up. We back the boat into the lake and idle out over the submerged trestle. As we ease into the middle of the lake we get the full force of the wind and water is blowing up the side of the boat and I am thinking "this will make for a long day".
Tim says he has a spot in mind that should be out of the wind and then to HOLD ON. I reach over and grab Lil Lav, I hear a loud growl turn to a howl, the bow rises up, we get on plane and we are rocketing over the water. Little Lav and I are unable to hide the ear to ear grins and further supress a couple of "yee haws" (yes, we can get a little "red" at times
)We come in for a landing behind a breakwater where the water is flat and grab poles and goto work chuckin' and windin'. My little boy is all smiles and, quite frankly, impressing Tim and I with his casting.
We work the shoreline switching between spin baits, body baits, rubber and after about 20 minutes my rod tip dives, I instinctively set the hook and, as Jeremy Wade would say, we had "FISH ON". I played the fish for a minute and got it to the boat, a nice 24" or so Pickeral. I take a picture and send it back.
The skunk broken we continue to fish but Tim is not satisfied with the results of this spot so we stow the rods and rocket off to another sheltered spot. By now we are actually cold and damp yet excited to boat some fish so we press on with the mission. We chuck, we wind, we get no fish. We are approaching the noon hour hour so we need to search out a calm spot to have some lunch and try to warm up. We motor up east creek a bit and find shelter and finally the clouds start to break a little and we get some sunshine. We feast on turkey sammiches, hard boiled eggs, pepperoni, cheese, crackers, and of course, Doritos (my boy LOVES Doritos).
Nourished, warmed up and not marking any fish in the crick we motor back out to the lake. As the sun has come into full bloom (finally) the lake lays down a bit as well.
With the water a bit flatter Timbo reveals he has a good spot in mind so we batten down the hatches, I hold my boy and like the Millenium Falcon going to light speed we rocket off up the lake. The howl in my ears is what I imagine it must be like if you could roll down the window in a passenger jet at cruising speed and stick your head out.
We arrive at "the spot" and immediately goto work with our tools. Timbo lets out a "WHOA this is a good fish" and pulls in a huge Northern. Lil Lav is freaking out, so stoked to have a big fish in the boat.
With renewed lust we continue to fish. As the afternoon ticks away my son has yet to catch a fish despite Tim and I picking a few up.
Realizing that the force of two Lavs focused on one rod might just the zen we need to get my boy tusslin' with a fish. I put my rod down and take up a postion behind my son and start to swap rods through his hands, tie on different lures and essentially go through the tacklebox until we find something the fish want.
I tie on an old Vibrax Minnow Spin onto his little 5' ultralight rod and spincast reel. He casts it for shore and starts to crank it in and WHAM! The little rod doubles over and Lav starts jumping up and down "I got one I got one" and mister dooley did he. The line was screaming off the reel and he was cranking for all he was worth but not making any gains on the line. I let it run for a few seconds then reached over and tightened his drag a bit so he could take some line. He reeled and got the fish nearly to the boat, we could see he had a nice Pike on, it saw the boat and made one more run then tired and surrendered to my boy. We boated it and took a couple pictures with Tim holding the Pike next to Lav (seeing my boy's proud smile was priceless!!) and sent it back the lake. That made my day, maybe even more than his and I know Tim was proud of Lil Lav too.
As we continued to fish Lav got bit off (same lure, likely another pike) and it came time to call it a day. Lav in no way wanted to quit, but when he realized we had another speedy zip in store he aquiesced.
We were headed for home, Lil Lav with his rosy cheeks kept nodding off in the truck and that made me smile. As we cruised over Rte 4 towards Rutland he perked up and asked me if we could goto Dicks to buy some more tackle........gotta love that boy!!!!
A great day that we'll remember for all our years to come
Raz: Thanks for the link for picture hosting!!
