Not your typical fishing trip

Share your fishing adventures, especially ones using antique tackle!
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Midway Tommy D
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Not your typical fishing trip

Post by Midway Tommy D »

Weatherman said today (Fri) would be a "top 10" day so my wife and I decided to play a some hookie and go fishing at a nice little 250 acre, 5 mph, watershed lake a couple miles from our house. I think a few other people thought the same thing as there were a fair number of fisherman along the bank and on the water. First time out for the year and a good way to check out the ole' 50 Merc and make sure it was still running & trolling great, as they are known for. Temp around 75, a few light clouds & wind around 5 mph, just a great day to be on the water, especially with your best friend who happens to be your wife. Fishing was pretty good too, with a half dozen channel cats, a few bluegills, crappie, a couple nice bass and a nice walleye. We saw an older guy (65-70) in a small boat fishing by himself and talked a little as we passed by each other. It was his first time out for the year too, and also his first time out in the little old 12' aluminum boat he had bought. He and his wife had also just moved to Omaha last August. We trolled down the lake a ways and I noticed where he was at, about a 1/4 mile from us now. I looked back around a few minutes later and his boat was upside down and stuff was floating on top of the water. SCARY SIGHT! We hauled butt over there and luckily he was wearing his life jacket and was holding on to the side of the boat (later he said he didn't know how to swim). The water was about 25' deep. After getting him a safety line and making sure he was O.K. we ended up getting his boat rope and with him holding our rope and holding onto the back of his boat and motor we pulled them a 1/2 mile or so to the boat ramp where we got the boat uprighted, drained and onto his trailer so he could head home. Someone on the bank heard him yelling for help and called 911 with their cell phone and the Sheriff was at the ramp when we got there. The Deputy called an ambulance when he found out the gentleman (Al) was diabetic just to make sure he was O.K., and he was a little shaky but fine. Al lost his tackle box, trolling motor, battery, transducer and poles, except for one that a hook caught in his shoe and got drug along behind. Luckily his gas motor and depth finder stayed attached, along with a few misc items that floated along in the air pocket under the boat. The adrenaline just kicked in and neither my wife nor I really realized the magnitude of the event until about an hour after we went back out on the lake. HOLY COW! What if we hadn't seen him when we did? We're just thanking the Lord we did! WOW, it was pretty gut wrenching and overwhelming about then! Life is so precious! Guaranteed, this is one day neither my wife nor I will ever forget, and it sure won't be about the fish we caught!

Tom
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kingfisher
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by kingfisher »

Good on you Tom. You're a life saver.
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john elder
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by john elder »

Wow, quite an experience, Tommy! Glad you were there to help! But you should know that 65-70 no longer qualifies as an "Older Guy" :D ...that doesn't come until you're Bad Bob's age!
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Midway Tommy D
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by Midway Tommy D »

Thanks Ray. We're trying to look at it as just helping out a "fellow being" in need. Helps lower the mental aspect a little, although drifting off to sleep last night had a lot of thought going on for both of us. :roll:

Yeah John, rumor has it that BB might be Methuselah's father :P I'm 63 so "older" fits perfectly in this case :D Some days I feel about 90 though :lol: I would have floated like a lead balloon :wink: , even with a life jacket, or had a coronary :P over the whole ordeal. Al kept surprisingly calm throughout the whole thing, except the one time when he started losing his grip on his boat. He's the one that suggested pulling him to the boat ramp. :o

Believe it or not :shock: , the north end of a south bound horse :loco: was actually ticked off that both sides of the boat ramp were occupied with my boat tied to one side and us trying to upright and drain Al's on the other. The guy and his wife wanted to put in and could care less about anything else. :twisted: Didn't understand why both sides had to be blocked :doh: Some people :bash: My wife, Bonnie Ma, right after I told them my "give a damn was busted" :x , set them straight quickly :yay

Tom
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Brian F.
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by Brian F. »

I'm always amazed at how boaters honor the unspoken committment to help anyone in distress at any time. Good going!
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Jonathan P. Kring
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by Jonathan P. Kring »

I'm still trying to digest that "Old Guy thing" 65-70. At 68 I guess I fit right in there. I always like it when people say , well you don't look that old. I know I act that old, and unfortunately I feel that old. I enjoy retirement, just don't enjoy being old, but as Don Champion says, it beats the alternative!
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Midway Tommy D
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by Midway Tommy D »

It's "older" than me (63). :wink: You gotta keep some of them verses of George Jones' "Rockin Chair" in your head 8) . Procrastination is way to easy 'cause there's "always tomorrow" to "Get 'r Done" and this "sure ain't for sissies". Most things just take a little longer nowadays :roll: , that's all :lol:

Tom
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by Don Champion »

Way to go Tommy! I have always been a great believer of respect and manners on the water. And then there are those like that North end of the South bound horse. Their day will come.
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by RAM »

I'm still trying to digest that thing of non-swimmer no life jacket. He didn't mention anything about being a UT fan did he?

As to the age thing, no further comment.

But on the more serious side you "done good!" Tommy

Bad Bob
RAM
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by RAM »

Oops! Misread! He WAS wearing a life jacket. Must have been a Georgia grad. In my more youthful days the life jackets we used were primitive compared to those today and I'm not sure how much help they would have been if we capsized in deep water. All of them were orange then. They should have given us a choice as I refuse to wear anything orange.

Swim or no swim, in a moving boat here wearing them is mandatory now. All you guys still young enough to be boating be sure and WEAR them!

BB (not allowed in water deeper than a kiddie pool or a smallmouth creek)
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Jonathan P. Kring
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Re: Not your typical fishing trip

Post by Jonathan P. Kring »

There are some of us "Old Men " who are too old to be boating but still boat anyway! It's not mandatory in In. to wear them but you have to have them in the boat and over a certain size boat you have to have a throwable one on board also.
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