Wet in Wisconsin

Jason called me this morning with a sense of concern. We were to meet his father in Amery Wisconsin and spend the afternoon fishing Wapagasset Lake. According to him there was a 60% chance of rain and wanted to know if I was still interested. My weather guy claimed the big area of rain to the west was going to drift south and we would be lucky to get a sprinkle or two. Seeings I never trust any of them, it was a 50/50 chance we would have great weather so we stayed on course with our original plan. I loaded the boat, picked up Jason and his wife Abby and headed for Amery. Now this trip was actually 2 years in the planning as Andy (Jason's dad and my wife's uncle) had been trying to get me to fish one of his favorite lakes. Andy lives in Eau Claire and it was a perfect meeting point for all of us. I subordinated myself to Andy letting him be the lead guy on this trip. After getting some night crawlers, I suggested that we launch at the marina on the SE side of the lake. After 20 minutes of driving it became obvious that I did not know where the Marina was. I decided to follow Andy as he had been here before and we would go to his landing. He seemed to know where to go, so all was good. Some 20 minutes later we still driving around and not in the water. We had wasted about the same amount of time as it did for me to drive to Amery. Now 10 years ago this aimless lack of planning would have drove me crazy. I generally had little patience and often let my feelings be known. Today I just look at it as a minor inconvenience as there are many things a lot worse than being lost for 40 minutes(Bill, pay attention!). Having finally found the landing we proceeded to load the boat. I backed the trailer into the water as always and shoved the boat off yet this time it just swung to one side.
Figuring the landing was super shallow I backed up to the point where the exhaust was gurgling under the water with no avail. Apparently someone forgot to take off the left boat tie down.................. namely me. I have had these situations before however with a lady present, I decided against stripping down and wading in. The boat would not go back on the trailer straight so we carefully pulled it up and with enough slack unhooked it, another 15 minutes! Finally getting to our first fishing spot, 3 casts and I nailed the biggest bluegill I have caught in 20 years, pushing 10 inches. Boy I thought we were in for a super day. How many times have you been in that situation? More than I would like to admit. We ended up with a northern, 3 more small sunnies, a number of small bass, a totally unexpected white bass, and a crappie. The big sunnies never materialized however the rain certainly did. It started about 3:00 and was still raining when we left. Although wet, the rain did not dampen the wonderful time with Jason, Abby and the most important, Andy.