Sometimes you get what you need…
July 27, 2011
By Bob Zettler

Most of us over the age of 30 remember that old Rolling Stones song that says “You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes well you might find. You get what you need ..” Well, Tuesday, July 26, 2011 was one of those days.

Normally, I do not take time off during the week as I like to save all my vacation time to use during the hunting season(s) that nowadays stretches from September 1 through early May but this one time I decided to take the afternoon off. No, the fish weren’t going especially crazy and I didn’t have a serious line on them per se. However, work was about to get crazy and this would be my last day I could get away. At least I had hope in that my good friend Brian Cleland had done very well with Tyler two days earlier just around the corner from where I had spent most of 20 hours on Lake Shelbyville the day before but that day is another story…

Now I have been going solo a lot this summer and didn’t want to this time so I extended an invitation to my daughter’s boyfriend who I really hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know. And since I had heard through the grapevine they were getting serious and had been together more than a year now, this just seemed like an appropriate time to test the waters. We parents do not have it easy and when you throw in divorce it just seems more complicated. And even though she lived with me from the age of 14, I had always striven to keep her and her mother together which wasn’t all that easy a job. And, ironically, recently we haven’t been too close but I digress already…

I made arrangements with work to take off Tuesday afternoon and was pleased to learn Jeremy had the entire day off when he accepted my invitation. Now Tuesdays are not my favorite day of the week. Call me superstitious or silly but it seems life will throw curve balls and spitters at me on the third day of the week. Car breakdowns, illnesses, injuries, etc., seem to migrate to this particular day but I had Brian’s fishing report, a good weather forecast with light winds and knew where I had done well on Saturday, so I took a chance.

Then, I got thrown a curve ball when my son asked to go. Now he hadn’t been too keen on going in this heat and he hates how I can go out for hours on end while he would be satisfied with just a two-hour cruise. Yet, he asked to go and I was happy to oblige! So we made plans to meet Jeremy around 1 PM after I had gone home to get the boat and hoped to be on the water by 2:30 PM but right off the bat ran into issues and didn’t leave Chatham (where I live) until nearly 1:30 PM. A short while later I had picked up Jeremy from the K-Mart parking lot and was heading east on I-72 to Lake Shelbyville and that was when I noticed the dark clouds building. Now I had checked the weather and saw an 11% chance of precipitation for the afternoon but I predicted we would get wet before the day was over and 10 minutes later had the wipers on!

“Was my Dark Cloud luck building to interfere with building a relationship with Jeremy,” I fretted but the rain was over before we hit the outskirts of Decatur where we stopped in Mount Zion for gas and Subway sandwiches. Now most people know I am a shopper and deal prospector and that was why I stopped here for gas as it was 13 cents cheaper than back home. In addition, lunch at Subway would be reasonable as they had the two foot-longs for $9.99 but not at this one! They don’t go on special till after 4 PM, so instead of paying $15 for three sandwiches it was nearly $24 – there goes the gas savings! Then it was on to Findlay and the R&K One Stop for minnows and ice but that too got complicated when my son wanted, no, make that needed a Red Bull and another snack which added $8 to the bill. At least Jeremy bought the beer, so we weren’t even on the water and I had dropped a $100+ but this was more about building a relationship and as we all know there are always there are costs to everything if you want them done right.

In short order we were at the Eagle Creek ramp and I showed Jeremy what I do to prep for the water and asked if he could assist in getting the boat into the water. I get tired of doing this by myself, even though I have a routine, and he stated he felt comfortable backing me and the boat into the water so it was a go. Still, I was nervous as the brakes on my Jeep hadn’t seemed right lately and you just never know. So I positioned the Jeep and trailer and after getting into the boat had him back me in, which went extremely well! He went ahead and parked it and the three of us headed to the cove and points I had fished this past weekend and Brian had cleaned up on Sunday. Sure, I had a desire to hit a few spots before we got there but I decided this presented the best opportunity for catching fish and spending some quality time with my son and quite possibly a young man who might become a part of all our lives…

Remember those dark clouds we passed through earlier as we left Springfield? Well, all of a sudden the skies got darker and when we checked the radar on our Smartphones we discovered several red areas headed right at us! Yes, there was lightening and with an aluminum boat I felt it best we seek refuge. However, there was no cover and as we watched the remaining boats scream out of there I decided to beach the boat on the southern shore where we could tie the boat up at and let the now northern winds blow it into the shore while we gathered back under the relative “safety” of the woods. In a matter of minutes the calm, flat waters began to form large waves and while it wasn’t like the Bering Sea, we all agreed I had made the prudent decision. As the 50 MPH winds blew and the lightening crackled in the distance (less than 3 seconds away) we explored the area as we chatted.

It was actually kind of nice as it wasn’t really raining but sprinkling and as long as the boat didn’t blow away and the lightening stayed away, we could ride out the storm and that was when Jeremy spotted a tiny frog in the leaves nearby. At first, I thought he was mistaken as I could not discern anything other than leaves but after several minutes of scanning I thought I could see one but was having a difficult time believing my eyes and that Jeremy had seen it at all! Sure, on the way there as we took the Route #51 by-pass he spotted a deer standing in the grassy median that I hadn’t which was fortunate as I slowed down enough so that when it decided to bolt I didn’t hit it! But how could this young man who doesn’t hunt like me spot something so tiny that both my son and me had to literally stare for minutes just to find it after Jeremy had pointed it out to us?




(Continued)