Weekend on the Lake

Marcus helped drive the boat to shore on Saturday evening

after a couple hours of fishing. As a father it’s great to have

my kids out fishing with me; now if I could just keep him

from talking so much in the boat! He hasn’t quite figured

out yet that fishing is a “quiet” sport.

By Allan Olson

Who knew having a boat could be so much fun? I certainly didn’t. The weekend was busy spent close to home except for attending a birthday party for Smokey Bear on Saturday we stayed away from town as much as possible.

Friday evening we spent laying around the house, I was tired and didn’t feel like doing much of anything, until later in the evening when we did some re-arranging in the girls room for a new dresser that was given to us by a family member. Aside from that, most of the evening was spent watching the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics, although I can say that after over two hours of watching it, I don’t really remember much of it and we tuned into something else before the end of the ceremony.

Saturday morning was spent watching more Olympics before we headed to town for the birthday bash at Norway Beach. Once we got back home, I wanted to watch some more Olympics, but after some persistent begging from the oldest I relented and headed out to get the boat hitched. When we pulled out of the driveway, I had three of my four kids the bait and the fishing gear all stowed in the vehicle or the boat. Our destination was once again, North Twin Lake, primarily because it’s small, close to home and we have found a few fishing spots on the lake.

Our time on the lake was short as we didn’t get on it until after 7 p.m. and my goal is to be home by dark anytime we head out. We didn’t have much luck in the fishing department but all three of the kids landed a fish and I was skunked. Nikolai also landed his first bass (I still have yet to catch a bass) and initially we kept all three fish, hoping for more, but ultimately we released them as I wasn’t about to go through all the work of cleaning them for that few fish. Unfortunately, I wanted a better photo of Nikolai and his bass and before I could mention it, Marcus had tossed it over. Oh well, maybe next time.

On the way back to the landing, both Nikolai and Marcus got to help drive the boat to shore.

On Sunday morning, after experiencing many seizures the day before, we brought our dog into the vet. Since they were open, my assumption was they had a vet on duty, again never base facts on assumptions. To call a vet in would have been very expensive, so upon recommendation of the helpful staff, we decided to schedule an appointment. The rest of the day was good for the poor dog as he had no further seizures and hopefully we will be able to get him some meds to help him out.

Sunday evening, after much persistence again from Nikolai and Marcus we headed out to the boat again. The boys and I along with Alivia headed back to North Twin hoping for better results than the night prior. We met some people at the dock coming in who had run through all kinds of bait and had fish to show for it, they directed me to the area they had luck with and we headed out to try that first. An hour later of messing around in that area, we had nothing to show for it, so we ventured over to our other fishing hole. We tried a few things, changed our hooks, used artificial and fake bait, but the fish just weren’t really biting. I pulled up two very small pan fish and Alivia also caught a small one, so since we weren’t having any luck we decided to try another area. That too failed to produce for us and finally after 7 p.m. we headed back to shore with Alivia guiding us home driving the boat again.

Perhaps the most unusual part of the two days of fishing was Marcus willing and wanting to go out. He doesn’t really care if he catches much or not, but he is finally feeling a little more comfortable in the boat and doesn’t panic as much if someone shifts to one side to fast.

I mentioned in a previous story that for me launching a boat and getting everyone ready is really a “comedy of errors,” I suck at backing the boat up, although that’s improved, putting the trailer back in to get the boat has not, thankfully it’s light enough that the kids can move it to help straighten it out after I twist it up, also while I enjoy fishing, a pro angler I am not and neither is my collection of gear. The boat has some leaks, although I’m working on fixing them, our reels are less than stellar and some should probably be tossed, I have taken to raiding some of the ice fishing reels to offset the bad ones, so hopefully I remember to fix that before the winter fishing season. The good news is that I finally feel like for the first time in many years I have actually gotten my money’s worth out of the cost of the fishing license. However, with all of that, the boat works and runs gets me across the lake and back, the kids and I are having fun and the time spent on them in the great outdoors is priceless. I think next week, (this week is too busy and we probably won’t get out at all) the kids and I better get out several more times as pretty soon, it will be relegated to weekends only and since I bought my first small game license in many years we will be sharing some of that time in the woods hunting for birds and then it will be winter.

After fishing on Sunday, we also came home to freshly made banana bread, banana scones that my wife made and Abigail with assistance from mom made a Strawberry Pie, her first attempt at pie making. I asked her to make me a Peanut Butter Pie, but she laughed and said, “good luck.”

Plans for this weekend, is a joint birthday party for Marcus and Abigail a week early, we will be celebrating their birthday along with a couple family members up in the north country on Sunday, it should be a good time.

Enjoy your summer, and be sure to snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit. To our Law Enforcement officers and other emergency personnel, be safe, and thank you for all that you do!