Fishing With My Uncle - This Fog Is Thick Like Soup

Part 3 - This Fog Is Thick Like Soup

We awoke around 5:00AM. Who am I kidding? I had been up most of the night after the storm really picked up. I have always had this sense of anticipation before I go for a long day fishing. Almost like waking up early on Christmas day. It has always been there. I imagine if that feeling were to ever fade then that would be the day I put away my gear for good. This morning was no different. There was also this sense of "what did we signed ourselves up for?" going on in my head. Such a long trip and such a terrible storm.

I stepped out into the main area and Uncle Ken and I nodded at each other. "Quite a storm last night, eh?" I said.

"Hope it doesn't put the panfish down.," he quipped.

We loaded up the final items for the day into the boat. Some food and drink for lunch. Tackle and other gear. A box full of worms. Then we made our way out onto the lake. The sight we had that morning was magnificent. The water was calm as the storm front had moved through. The sun revealed itself over the horizon and lit the sky a silver and gold hue.

That warming glow would turn out to be short lived. It quickly shifted to an overcast morning. Because we could not attach our sonar or trolling motor we worked diligently along edges of vast reed beds that jutted out of the lake bottom. Fishing was slow, but it didn't matter. We were barely into our first day out and just enjoying the sights and sounds of near wilderness.

Fish were finally found along some reed lines on the north end of the lake. Uncle Ken got into a couple of good looking Bluegill. I caught a very competitive personal best Smallmouth Bass.

The fun with the fish would be short-lived. As we moved along the reeds a fog rolled in. What was a clear and calm morning turned into a bout of being lost, befuddled and darn near blind on the lake. The wind picked up. The waves began to roll. We decided to head back.

But we lost sight of the reed line! We were lost on the lake. Out in the open. Barely seeing more than five feet in front of the bow. Somehow we found ourselves in the deeper part of the lake. The waves continue to roll against the hull of our tiny boat. We were nowhere and there was nothing beside our boat in a vast emptiness.

"This fog is thick like soup!" I said to Uncle Ken as we drifted about.

 

Suddenly another boat cut through the fog in front of us. Surely making their way to safe harbors, we thought. We decided to follow only to lose sight of it and be in deeper water. Time passed for roughly an hour as we rolled around on Lida. Then to our starboard side...a reed line! Was it the one we had fished? We had no idea. But we decided to follow it.We were out of the deep water on the lake, and happy enough with just that. 

We finally started seeing docks jutting out from the reeds and could tell from the water under the boat that we were getting shallower and shallower. Some two hours passed while we were traversing, what seemed like a sea, before we came upon our dock. We were glad to be out of the fog and back on land. 

It is still one of my favorite memories. I don't expect I will every repeat something like that. 

-WRS