Captain Dan......Another story.

"Alex, I will take Captain Dan for $100."
By Bob Zettler
August 23, 2010

“Okay, where do you want to fish next?,” I asked Josh as we floated on Shelbyville Sunday morning and that is when I remembered my premonition of the night before that today was not going to go as hoped. I mean here we have two guys who are on their second outing fishing and it was like neither of us wanted to decide where to go or what to do and it wasn’t even 9 AM!

It seemed to be a carryover of the day before when I went by myself on Sangchris for the first time in a boat with an outboard. Friends had suggested I get out there and learn the lake as it was so much closer to home and it has fish – water, power plant, some structure – as I had been traveling the 75 to 90 miles one way every weekend since May to Shelbyville while Sangchris is just 22 miles away.

They made sense as I know that others had told me of their successes but by golly I had been having some phenomenal luck at Shelbyville and was learning the lake, my boat (motor and trailer), and how to fish on the water instead of from the shore as I had been doing for more than 50 years. But here I was heading over there in the afternoon to give it a go - I would have gone to Shelbyville that morning but they had forecast storms that never came.

I stopped by the bait store in Pawnee and bought three-dozen medium minnows and chatted with the staff where I learned of another and closer boat ramp just down the road – sometimes spending a little extra time with others pays off! Drive down and put in the boat where it starts right up and I notice the water is VERY warm in the high 90’s so I decide to head north after talking to some others who had just given up without catching any fish. It was just about 4 PM when I set out and tried to find the places a friend had suggested, but as I motor around, I am not scanning many fish…nowhere near what I usually see at Shelbyville!

Anyway, to make a long story shorter (if that is possible for me) I fished a number of spots and never even got a bite until near sunset where I caught a small catfish. Well, at least I tried. As I was getting the boat ready to go home at the ramp another boat was putting in, so instead of throwing the 35 minnows I had left, I offered them to these strangers. They were happy to take them and even offered to pay but I declined and just chatted as they got ready to put in and me go home. I learned they had been tearing the catfish up and had been fishing the hot ditch a lot which I had avoided since the temps were near 97 when I put in. I guess you can learn something new at the strangest places but I digress as usual.

Now we had plans to hit Shelbyville in the morning so I went to bed early as I planned on getting into them again just like last weekend where Josh and I brought home a mix of 70 White Bass and Crappie, But then it hit me! A feeling of dread that tomorrow was not going to go well and I tossed and turned all night until the alarm went off at 3:45 AM. As I had already refueled the boat I headed out to Sullivan where I planned on putting in at Bo Woods. As I had also bought my sustenance for the day the night before (four McChickens) all I had to do was buy ice in Sullivan. As I approached the Casey’s store I was shocked to see the lights were out but a clerk was sitting out front with the newspapers. Asked her what gives and was told they don’t open for awhile – it was 5:20 – but after learning of my plight she went inside and sold me a bag. Gotta love people!

As we were going to meet at the ramp before 6 AM in order to stick to our game plan and buy some new Candy Stripers from Steve, I had to get our minnows at Marv’s there south of Sullivan pretty quick. Arrived there right at 5:30 AM and decided to get the boat ready while I waited on them to open. Pretty soon it’s 5:40 and the whole building is still dark. At 5:45 Josh is driving by and backs up to check on me and I said I was waiting for them to open but here is my money for the lures and asked him to go ahead. I then called their number and was told they had changed the hours last week but I pointed out they hadn’t changed their sign – not my smoothest move – and they said someone would be right out. Ten minutes later another car pulls up and they finally open where I buy eight dozen minnows in anticipation of oodles of White Bass and Crappie we were sure to catch and scream on to the ramp in hopes of catching Steve for an updated report.

He is there waiting on his clients and tells me a whole different direction to go as I had been set on heading east first and then after getting our fill of Whites head north for Crappie. Josh and I confer and we decide to head west and then north. This time Josh stays with the boat and I park my Jeep so now I know I have my keys and we set out to check out the spots we know of but see little as we cruise around and then past them. If the Whites are deep then we are looking for ledges into deeper water and while they aren’t infinite, there are a number that are generally known to be better than others and wouldn’t you know it we run into Steve at several of them. Not wanting him (or anyone else) think that we are tagging along, we don’t always try the same places but are sometimes pretty close.

Unfortunately, these spots are not looking good and we are forced to continue to move from spot to spot ending up north of the Railroad Bridge which is a pretty fair distance for a small boat! With me it I can go 18 to 20 MPH but when Josh and his gear settle in we can only go 8 MPH tops so it cuts into our fishing. And, as usual Josh catches the first one and while we are now in a Crappie spot he still lands a small White. Que sera, sera.

Things are not going well and we don’t have a single keeper between us when around 9:30 we decide to head to Slaughter Point, a place we had originally planned on hitting first but had changed our minds after talking with Steve. Sure, blame the guide...LOL

What is nice about the two of us is that we don’t argue about where to go. However, we both hate to make “the” decision about where to fish and that presents a dilemma as I am at the tiller but truly don’t have the experience others have and sure hate to get the blame when places don’t produce; however, I will take the credit! And as we motor over fearing that there will be beacoup boats already there, we notice a boat here and there along the way catching Whites but each one is right up against the shore! What gives as we had heard they are deep but these guys are catching them in what appears to be shallow waters? Maybe the storms from the other night changed things, after all some areas received several inches of rain…

We are shocked when we arrive at our destination to find no one there and after 45 minutes of fishing we realize why! Now here it is 10 AM and we haven’t got one keeper to show for our efforts but at least I have 30 pounds of ice! Went over to fish under the Route 32# bridge and catch a few dinks but the winds continue to play havoc with my light boat even though I have a bunch of cra…I mean gear in it. Thirty minutes later Josh has put his poles away as he is done for the day but I say let me just try a couple of spots around there and then we can head back. Before we do I check my tank since we are right next to Skeeters and it looked like I had plenty of petrol so we headed to the ramp. Got Josh’s gear out and him on the road but I was going to forge on and had decided to head to the spot where we had fished the river channel last week down by Wolf Creek. Passed by the Findlay Marina and decided I had plenty of fuel. Now Brian and I had been talking and texting all morning and he offered to text me the GPS coordinates to a spot down there close to where Josh and I had been the week before and it arrived just as I passed by Eagle Creek – ain’t technology grand!

So as I watch my GPS for the magic confluence of numbers I am shocked that it is maybe 50 yards from the spots I had marked the week before. However, as it was past Noon and boat traffic had picked up considerably – as well as the wind – I had to use my Johnson (motor) to stay in the area and try and locate the fish. This is quite stressful for an inexperienced guy like me and I just wasn’t having any luck with minnows or lures. And since Brian needed his beauty sleep (he had worked 7PM to 7 AM) and my texts and calls had him in and out of bed all morning, I didn’t want to bother him again so I kept plugging along for some time. After an hour or so of this, I felt it was hopeless and thought about heading back north to some spots others had suggested and that was when I noticed how much lighter the gas tank was!!!!

Where the Heck had it all gone! I considered a leak but realized that couldn’t be the case. It didn’t matter as I need gas pronto and set out for the Findlay Marina. Traveled 100 yards and the motor quit. Resituated the tank and went another 50 yards. But before I could throw myself overboard and drown my troubles, a Sea-Do pulled up alongside and asked if I was okay. You know I don’t go to church but I believe in God and occasionally pray but how lucky can one person get! We conferred and they offered to tow me which gave me pause for it was some distance and he had just the Sea-Do and that was when he pointed out he had help – his wife and other daughter was behind me in a boat!

First things first and we looked for a rope. I pulled out all three of mine (the anchor rope and two other yellow ones) but he knew he had something safer in his boat. Now his wife had to search her boat but in no time at all we had his Sea-Do and my Jon boat attached and headed north. I thought 8 MPH was slow but for our entourage we could only go 6 MPH. However, it sure beats trying to troll into a head wind, or, heaven forbid, row there, so I spent the time cleaning the boat and making ready the tackle for the next time.

You all know how far it is from basically Wolf Creek to the Findlay Marina? Well, it’s a VERY long way and I got a lot done. In fact I was able to take my Good Samaritan’s picture and post it on the web. Oh, and Brian called to tell me about where his buddies had done well that very morning. While Josh and I had struck out wherever we went these two caught nearly a two man limit of keepers in just a couple of hours! What a dilemma. On one hand it had been a tough day and I was beat. On the other hand, I had nothing to show for my two outings except for the pending marina gas bill. Heck, I don’t give up easily and nearly 45 minutes later we arrived at the Marina and the gas pumps where we were greeted with a sign that said, are you ready, “NO GAS!”

Now what did I do in the past week to bring this down around me? No matter as I offered to pay the Good Samaritan for his assistance so he and his family could enjoy the rest of the afternoon but he declined. I even offered to buy them all ice cream but I think they just wanted to get away from me before my karma rubbed off on them – Ha, Ha! No matter as I would survive and this beats trying to get back to the ramp by rowing….yeah, like I could survive 10 seconds of that and that was when that silver lining appeared and one of the staff made a call and got someone to drive down to pick me up so I could get some gas. Halleluiah, praise be the good and kind people of this world! They actually were not out of gas, it was their gas line that was broke by that tornado earlier in the summer and they have a gas truck up top. Got 5.3 gallons in it and went ahead and had them put oil in even though I had bottle in the boat and was back and running just after 2 PM.

Now the spot I wanted to go (no, I wasn’t giving up) was another mile or two south of where I had been when I ran out of gas which would make a return trip to Bo be about 10 miles. I wasn’t going to chance my luck again so I headed back with a plan to load the boat on the trailer and head south. As I cruised back, I even stopped at a couple of spots to try my luck and only landed an eight-inch bass. Was this an omen? Should I run home? No matter, for I got the boat loaded by 4 PM and headed to Findlay where I planned on buying a very large fountain soda with lots of ice. I have some customer loyalty and since I buy my minnows there sometimes and they give me more than what I pay for, I passed by at least one other station which probably had the same just to do what I felt was right.

As I disembarked the Jeep a woman came out of the store to inform me they were closed due to their power being out. You have to be kidding me and I began to laugh for this day just hadn’t turned out like I had planned or hoped for. Now I had drinks in the ice chest (FULL of ice) but I went ahead and got a Coke and headed south. I had to chuckle for I had big bottle of ice cold Coke in the ice chest and here I was drinking this “cool” Coke instead but I wasn’t giving up! No, not yet…

Made it to the Coon Creek ramp and recoiled in horror as I remembered how it was a fifth mile walk UPHILL to the parking lot but I went ahead and put in and headed out to catch some Crappie. Unfortunately, I could not remember exactly where Brian had said to go and not wanting to call him for the umpteenth time and wake him from his slumber, I texted instead! No response so I just decided to hit some structure here and there and troll as the opportunity presented itself. Finally around 5:30 Brian replied and I headed to his spot.

Now I had already discovered I had left my jigs in the parked Jeep when I was at the bottom of that FIFTH MILE walk at least I did find some jig heads similar to what Brian had suggested. And while I was just starting to approach a tree in the new area Brian called to check on how I was doing. We had been talking maybe 30 seconds when the one pole tipped and I grabbed it to set the hook and just as I did that the other pole tipped and without even hanging up I yelled to Brian I had fish and put the Cell down as I landed two keepers and landed a third within seconds of rebating the first pole.

How can you beat that! It had been obstacle after obstacle the last 24 hours and here I had trailered my boat by myself and moved to another location (for the first time) and I was now into them! In fact I ended up catching some and throwing some back too during the next two hours as I fished until just after sunset. I had my limit of unders that ran 9 inches or so and then I had six or so overs but I still wanted that biggie. In fact, here I am fishing 20 minutes after sunset with my battery running so low the fishfinder screen would dim when I used it and I had a small LED light cupped in my mouth so I could see the rod tips. Man I am glutton for punishment but I was laughing and having fun and that is a big part of what fishing is all about to me. I mean I know a lot of people laugh at me and I am okay with that for the most part since I encourage it.

But here I am still trying after all that had gone on today and asking for more. It made me feel like Captain Dan in Forest Gump when he was screaming at God as he tried to make meaning of his life and the cards he had been dealt. Now I still have my legs, such as they are with all the weight they carry, and while my trials and tribulations are very minor compared to so many out there, I find comic relief in much of what befalls me. Sure, I might not at the time, and have been known to suffer road rage occasionally when those idiots on the roads get under my thin skin, but if not for my sense of humor and skewed perspective of life and humans in general then I just don’t know what I would do.

There is one thing I know for sure, and that is I will never give up if there is that one opportunity to achieve something I desire or need to. Life is full of jeopardy, dark clouds and lemons but as has been pointed out by better men than me, in each you can find something positive. In one, there could be a silver lining inside even if you don’t realize it at the time. And in the other, you can if you try most times makes something sweet out of something sour no matter what they throw at you! In any case, it had been a day that made possible by old friends, new friends and some truly good people. People online, over a telephone, on the water and on shore. Thank you all!

And as my Good Samaritan said to me, he was just doing what was right and what he hoped others would do for him if the occasion should ever arise. Something we should all continue to think about as we pass through life…Amen!

ITS GOTSTA BEEZ DA TRUFF.....................too much to be B S:eek:

We wouldn't appreciate the good without experiencing the bad.

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