Casting Contest

This is about one of my Fly-in trips into, uh…I sorta misremember the name of the lake. Must have something to so with my advancing age! :0) Anyway. I have made 20 of these trips, over the years, and had a ball on all. When I first started flying in to these lakes it cost 42 dollars per person and that included the camp, flying in and out, a boat and 10 gallons of gas per person. We had to get a license and bring our own food. The lakes were usually great fishing. Pike and Walleye! The walleye weren't all that large but the Pike were big. I caught 76 pike one week. That was the only time I ever bothered keeping track. The lakes I flew into were normally rather small. They had to be large enough for a floatplane, usually a Beaver or small Cessna. I usually chose a smaller lake as I wanted to have it to ourselves. Some of the larger ones will have more than one camp and the solitude is one of the things I always looked forward to. Normally I would try for at least 4 people so we would have a euchre set. Six was better. Love to play it !! :0
This year there were 4 of us, Jay, Ray, Dale and I. It must have been some time in the early 80's. We would always rotate partners so we would not have any casualties by the end of the week. We fished two to a boat and they get pretty small after 8 or 10 hours of fishing each day. You get the urge to strangle your best friend after you have heard the same tune hummed for a full day and we have found that rotation is best! I had one buddy that spent a whole week burning OFF to keep the black flies away!! Heck they weren't out in the middle of the lake in the breeze!! He had a can with a rag in it that was soaked in OFF, Had that damn thing smoldering for a damn week!! Should have strangled the sucker. Nobody else would fish with him though. :0( I was fishing with Jay this day. Back then I fished all the time. Usually I would get out 3 or 4 times a week during the summer. Usually casting for bass or using a fly rod for sunfish and bluegill. I could flip that lure almost anywhere I wanted to. I could skip cast the sucker back under cover and lay it, with pinpoint accuracy in the Lilly's. Jay only fished on these trips! I was always stuck with running the motor. It was my motor but It gets tiresome after hours of it. Jay wouldn't touch the damn thing and said that we could fish anywhere I wanted and I was to make the decisions as to where to and when we moved.
We were fishing a small bay in this lake I can't remember the name of and the fish weren't interested. This was a beautiful lake. Lots of small bays with a rapids feeding the lake and a rapids at the discharge end. It was like glass and it was nice to listen to the Loons. Very peaceful. Now in times like this I would normally try to wake things up by messing with my partner. Maybe that is the real reason we rotated. I messed with all of them! Ole Jay was easy though! I would start off by bragging about how good a caster I was and how he wasn't in the same league with me. I would flip that sucker up tight to shore and just rag at the poor guy. Along the lakes we normally fish the trees come up tight to the shore.
You can't even get out of the boat in most places and this bay was no exception. There were cedar trees along the shore with their roots half exposed because of the wave action. Many of them were dead and leaning out toward the lake at about a 30-degree angle or so. Skeletons of trees actually, with all the small branches but no foliage. Well here I was just a ragging and braggin at Jay and watching him just a chewing at the bait. Now he knew what I was about as I had done it to the lad on more than one, slow fishing, afternoon. Jay was pretty good with that rod, I gotta admit. He was tough to beat, considering how little he fished. What really put a half hitch in his shorts, at these moments was the fact that when we had these contest, he would do pretty good and sometimes rub my nose in my own brag. I usually had a tough time wuppin him, if he was having a good day. This was one of his good days :0( I would say, "Try this sucker" and flip that Rappala right up under those cedars and the little vermin would match me. Or better me on occasion. I would never admit it to him and he will never read this :0) HAHAH He was making life just a little tough on a braggart that day and I thought I would lay one in as tight as I could, to shut him up. There wasn't much wind and it was great for control casting. I took aim at the base of one of these old dead cedars and after giving the sucker a sarcastic grin, let fly!! Well that sucker got away from me and headed for the top of that dead tree. It was leaning right at me and about 30 ft high or so. My story. It's as tall as I want it to be! :0) Thirty foot tree and a cast that went at least 35 ft high. That sucker went down directly on the top of that tree ! Now let me tell you a thing or two about a Rappala. They are a lure that is shaped like a minnow with three treble hooks and a nice lip at the front that gives it a swimming action. It is a great lure for Bass, Pike, Walleye and Cedar's! That sucker went up and came down through those branches. All the way to the water..........................................................................
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Continued
Never snagged a branch but I didn't consider it a plus at the time. It was threaded down through about thirty, small, branches. Man, I just looked at it and listened to Jay, squalling like a stomped on cat! I just looked at it and then turned to old Loud Mouth and asked him what he was crowing about. I told him that I did it a purpose so I could give him a demonstration as to how a skilled fisherman would get himself out of just such a predicament. He was about peeing himself with glee!! Jerk! I had no idea as to how I was gonna perform this deed but knew I had to bluff it. Did I tell you we had a beer bet on this contest? Maybe it was a six-pack or two. Can't remember right now. Anyway, my old buddy Jay was a calling me some really uncalled for names and a carrying on something awful. He was saying things like, I had just screwed up and was gonna lose a lure and have to cut my line and he was glad. He wasn't really showing me the proper respect, I didn't figure! I hunkered down and I starts to pulling that lure up to the first little branch and when I got it there, I snugged the lip up to it and just pulled, gentle like. It's old butt pulled up and then I gently gave it a tiny tug and the damn thing just popped over that limb like I knew what I was doing. He started yelling that I was just lucky and wouldn't do it again. I said, " Are you paying attention? Are you taking notes? Cuz there may be a test!" I hadn't thought that far ahead but had to have something cocky to say. Heck, I was gonna be hung up in a minute and he was gonna tear me a new butt !!
Well I tell you, I worked that lure up and over every one of those damn little branches, slicker than snail snot. All the while listening to him a squalling. I told him that he had better have those beer's ready cuz this was hard work. The little vermin was a getting a bit tense and I detected that in the lad by the way he was reaching for my rod and trying to set them hooks. I do think I showed a bit of poise in the way I babied that lure up and out of that tree, especially considering the fact that I was laughing my butt off and trying to fend off the pissant, all the while concentrating on the task at hand. Course I had to make sure he was studying on how I was doing the job because I had sorta come up with a test. Now that is what I call multi-tasking!! Now, as I said, I worked that lure up and out of that tree just as if I knew what I was doing. I was as shocked as he but had the good sense to take full credit for the deed and act as if was all part of my plan. He wasn't buying it though.
Now I did stroke the boy and told him that he was almost as good as me and if the chore was ever his, now he knew how to do it. He started a spouting as to how he wasn't stupid enough to get himself in such a position. Well he and I had been friends for some time. In fact he was my Forman at work. He should have known that you can never be real sure of some things. My old buddy, Jay, was setting in the front of the boat and I was in the rear as usual. I asked him where he would like to go. He told me where I could go. I said that I meant fishing. He said in a sorta grumpy way. "Your running the boat, dickhead"! Well, he was a setting there and his pole was a setting there. His pole had a Rappala on it and darned if it wasn't within reach. I had an inspiration. I said, "Jay old buddy, how about pulling up the anchor"? He starts a pulling it up and I just reach over and snatch up his rod and darned if I didn't make a perfect cast , just like the one I made. It went down thru them branches like a smelt thru a seagull!! He looks up and ( I wish I had a picture of his face. Poor baby) starting to yelling. I asked him if he had been paying attention and the lad got a little cocky. Said if I could do it, so could he. I watched for a minute and saw that he just might be able to do it. Little sucker!! :0)
Now it gets a little boring watching a guy do that so I gets a notion. I starts up that motor and headed for the middle of that lake. He starts a screaming and of course, the motor is making a lot of noise and all so I don't catch it all. I look at him and he is a bit tense. That pole is a jumpin' and line is just a shooting off that reel. Heck, the way I look at it is that he should have been happy that he got his bail open in time and the line could spool off ! :0) He did get a little pissy with me. Heck it was MY face that line was a shooting past as I was the one in the back of the boat! He just wasn't thinking of anyone but his own self!! HAHAHAH Upshot of it all is the fact that he must not have been paying attention. He failed his test. His lure is probably still in the top of that cedar. He lost a bunch of line. He saved his rod and reel and it is all because I did yell, "Hold on to your rod, tight"! You know, when that monofilament line cuts loose, it makes a heck of a noise. I did have to give him a Rappalla and a hundred yards of 20# Stren. He was such a poor sport. After all. He is the one that failed the test! Not I!
We got back to camp and we both paid off the other and when the beer was gone. All was forgiven. I couldn't hold it against him because he called me all them names. He don't even know my mama!:0)
I haven't seen Jay in years. About 20 or so. I have enjoyed writing this story as it gave me the chance to relive it. I haven't thought about it in a long time. There is the story about Jay and I getting stranded for the night on the Albany River. That empties into the James Bay. Man that was a trip! The trip to the Chapleau River in Northern Ontario. Heck I didn't know the lad was scared of bears!! HAHAHAHAHHA That is another story :0) Hope you enjoy-----RO