| Bruce Camp's Local Fishing Report Dec. 15th edition |
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I will be the first one to share a funny fishing story, just to break the ice. It happened in the summer of 2009. A buddy, who will remain nameless, had been asking me to go with him to a Friday night tournament he had been fishing every week, on Lake Wylie. Since I work at Carolina Speedway on Fridays that was impossible. However, we had a week off coming up and I told him to pencil me in for that one.
The evening came for this event, he assured me he has some good spots where we could “catch fish and win this thing”, his words. We get to the landing that evening and oddly enough, I knew NOBODY. Not a single person had I met before, so I felt like the kid that just moved to town on the first day of school.
The tournament starts, we go to his first spot and NOTHING, not only is there nothing, his trolling motor batteries are all but dead. We end up tying to a pier (the homeowner let us-we ask first) and he hook up the charger. When this was done we blast off to the next ( and in his words BEST) spot. We did catch fish and some decent keepers but nothing to make me feel like we could win.
BY now darkness has completely filled the sky and we hit here and there with little to no luck. Now it is time to head back in. Now is when the good stuff happens.
Since we are in his boat and truck, I offer to load the boat, as some people are picky as to how the trailer is backed in. Deal, we exchange seats and I am idling up to the dock.
Now if you are not familiar with the proper way to drop off another person at the dock, let me explain, briefly. You ease towards the dock, pull back in neutral and as he is about to step on dock, pull back in reverse. He steps off, you ease back and away, no harm-no foul.
Well, this particular buddy is one of those paranoid kinds that thinks if his boats gets a scratch it will sink, not that it was going to get a scratch. But rather than grab the pole holding the ends of the pier together and stepping on the dock, he grabs the pole and tries to push the boat backwards, all the while hollering “slow down, you gonna hit my boat on the dock”.
Well I was already in reverse and “easing” backwards when I realize he did not let of off the pole. He didn’t step off on the dock and he had not stayed standing on the boat. Ok, now is where you the reader has to picture a 6 foot, “young’un” with one hand on the pole, yelling at me, both feet on the 8 inch by 8 inch small area just in front of the trolling motor, and he tries to stay with the boat.
How did that work you must be wondering, NOT TO GOOD. As I sat mouth dropped open, and watched all 6 foot of him try to balance on that little bitty area I described earlier. I must admit, he did a heck of a job for about 7 seconds, then came the little ballerina type dance and finally, the head-first, splash into the dark waters of Lake Wylie.
When he pops up, head first, he spews water from his mouth like one of those fancy fountains you see on TV, and I meantime and crying from laughter. A man in a boat already docked turns and reaches forth a hand, and ask if he can help, but is laughing almost as hard as I am. “Nah, I got this”, came my (buddies) reply. He pulled himself up on the pier and began his long walk to get the truck, all the while never turning and looking or saying anything to me.
Again, you must picture this. It’s 2 am, I know not one sole and it’s to late to call any of “our” buddies, although I couldn’t have talked anyway, I was still crying with laughter. I sat for what seemed an hour, but was probably about 5 minutes, there are only 4 boats including me left to take out. I have about calmed down and as a guy idles by to load his boat, he pulls back and says, are you the guy that dumped his partner in the lake? To which, I again burst into a tear filled laugh. I look up and here he is about to back down the ramp, however, being young and not trusting his backing, he gets out to let the tailgate down so he can see. “OH no he ain’t”, I thought to myself as he appeared. He was wearing, knee length swimming trunks in Tweety bird yellow, no shirt or hat and flip flops. Yea, you guessed it, laughter again erupts from inside the boat.
I get the boat just on the trailer, give it some gas, hear the click of the strap and shut it down, and NOW, we make our first eye to eye contact. “You a dead man, you about wrecked my boat, you dumped me in the lake, I probably have all sorts of infections from this nasty water, my cell phone is drowned and I lost my friends $100 pair of Oakleys”. Through tears and gut busting laughter, I try to explain how all he had to do was step off onto the dock and all would have been fine, but he has none of it.
This has gone way longer than I intended so I will leave some out, but trust me, the ride home was one of the funniest rides I have ever had. As we near Blacksburg, my “buddy”, says I am hungry, you buying my breakfast for dumping me in the lake”. So I agree and we pull into the most popular late night eating establishment known to man. He has no dry shirt, so all that is dry is MY raincoat. We enter the restaurant, him leading, I had to open the door for him to go in first, so I could see everyone’s reaction. And his attire consisted of, my raincoat, his Tweety bird yellow swim trunks, and flip flops. The lady behind the counter looks up and says, “Oh honey, you done fell in”. To which, I again lose control and begin crying.
If anyone has any suggestions on stories or pictures of their catch or kill, you can e-mail me at plail5@carolina.rr.com. TITLE THE E-MAIL STORY OR PICTURE “FOR SHOPPER” OR I WILL ASSUME IT’S JUNK MAIL AND NOT OPEN IT.
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