Just When You Think...

Funny how life has a way of jerking one back to reality and smacking you in the face!

I remember the first time I went trolling for Muskie at Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada with Ogs and John-boy. It was late-October, right before the lake would freeze over, and we were running up and down the channels (apparently Ogs "invented" fishing for Muskie like this) looking to nab one of the elusive Muskie seeking to fatten up before the freeze. Wind, rain and snow pelted us from every direction and the only way to stay somewhat warm was to hunker down on the floor of the boat (There's probably a "nautical" term for "floor of the boat", but I can't even remember which side is port, starboard and what are the others?...) and to take nips off of my "special" coffee. Anyway, we fished most of the day with no success (Seems like most fishing is that way.) except that none of us were at our jobs working!

After lunch, we changed tactics and tried casting on the leeward side of "Hey! Island" (Ogs has special names for all the islands up there. "Hey! Island" is so-named because no matter how bad the fishing elsewhere on the lake was, Ogs could always catch a fish there..."Hey! Fish On!") and, guess what? I got a strike at Hey Island!

I didn't even have to battle my fish to bring it to the boat, but as it neared it was apparent that I had only successfully hooked the lesser-cousin of the Muskie, the Northern Pike. Ogs will tell you that "Pike are okay, [he] guesses, but they’re the stupid cousin of the Muskie and the only reason there’s more of them than Muskie is that Pike hatch first and its fry feed on the later-hatching Muskie fry… (Gasp…that run-on sentence is courtesy of Ogs!) Muskie, on the other hand, must rely on their cunning and intelligence for survival of the species. (He’s right though…any Muskie angler will tell you creepy tales of “follows” and “figure-eights” when trying to entice a Muskie) Anyway, we brought my Northern aboard to humanely remove the lure before throwing it back. We quickly realized that my catch was actually a huge, I mean HUGE, Northern! My feelings were slightly mended as I hoisted this monster up for a digital record of my catch. John-boy fumbled with his camcorder as I held the 54” Northern aloft. (Maybe it was only 48”? Hmmm…well, by now it’s definitely 54”, so we’ll go with that!) As the camcorder rolled, I loosened my grip slightly and was promptly tail fin slapped across the face and crapped upon before watching my glorious fish leap back into the water! See what I mean about being jerked back into reality and, this time, literally being slapped in the face?

So, what’s this have to do with Bethel? We’ve got a slow leak on the rear passenger tire of “Babe the Big Blue Truck”. I’ve filled it a few times now and I’m realizing that we need a new tire. Unfortunately, further inspection of all the tires reveals that we probably need 4 new tires. Out here, that means paying WAY too much for a tire that may be more weather-beaten than the tires I’m trying to replace. Of course, I could shop online and have a new set shipped up here. Either way, we’re looking at $1,000 minimum for the whole job. Ouch...

Just when things were looking up for us financially, I’ve been tail fin slapped in the face by reality. Here’s hoping I avoid being crapped on to boot!