A bad day fishing....

Saturday, December 5

Edward got up early--for him--at about eight o'clock. With all the bumping and banging around we were making, no wonder. But he soon discovered he'd forgotten to bring any pants to wear today, so off he and his Dad went to pick up his pants and, incidentally, get doughnuts. Our traditional Saturday morning with Edward breakfast--based on one or two occasions--Dunkin' Donuts.

Meanwhile I had my own breakfast and a long, delicious hour looking up times and dates on the computer. Then Molly and I got a 44-minute jog (supposed to be 45 but I failed to check the clock). And then I started watching the little birds in

the bushes by camp. There were a surprising lot of them. The only ones I ID'ed for mostly certain sure were the chipping sparrows.

Fishing presented some serious problems. It wasn't supremely cold or even very windy, but we experienced equipment malfunctions. I feel responsible for them all. First, I couldn't get the motor to go down in the water, and on account of that, I couldn't get the reverse gear to pull me back off the trailer. Edward had to climb in and push me off.  Still the steering wouldn't hardly work at all, but I assumed that had something to do with the motor position. Typically when the motor is tilted a bit, like when we're coming into shore, steering is harder.  But I couldn't get the motor to go down!

When I explained this to Ed, he say, duh! He'd left the motor locked in its half-down position. All he had to do is flip the switch and voila.

But then when we were landing I still could absolutely not make it steer to the right at all. I had to use a combination of reverse and forward motion to crab it over to the dock, where I turned over the steering to Edward. I did not suddenly become weak--there was definitely something wrong with the steering. We're thinking possibly a bit of hydrolic fluid would do the trick.

Fishing was slow. There were crappie down there, but they seemed to be small ones. I managed to torture a small bass into taking my minnow. He was about six or seven inches long.

Nothing much to report for the rest of the day. Dog walk; hanging out; enjoying ourselves. Watching deer wander through the campsite.