Oswald Lake Dunking

One spring, many years ago, Charlie Hudock and I along with a few others flew into Oswald Lake. We flew out of Folette to get to the lake just like we did the Chapleau River and Ivanhoe River camps.
We normally flew in the first week or so of June which is just a week or so after ice-out normally. The water is very cold at the that time.
It is usually very good fishing at that time as the Pike are in the shallows spawning and the walleye are hungry. The blackflys can be murderous but it is worth it if you catch the fish feeding. It can wear you out, hauling them in, if they are.
This particular week the fishing was rather poor. We would fish our butts off but the fish were few and far between. It could be frustrating, as you can see the damn things laying on the bottom in some places but they would not feed.
Charlie and I managed to find a way to make it more bearable. Beer! We did have the forethought to fly in a bunch of beer for the group. If I remember right, we had about 6 adults on this trip. I think we had about 16 cases of beer for the lot with a beer flight during the week. There weren't any women along so we could be real pigs if we wanted---and we wanted!
One day Charlie and I went fishing. We took a cooler full of beer with us in case the fish weren't biting. We had about 16 or 20 beers in the cooler so figured it would last until noon, The fish weren't. Charlie was a lot of fun on these trips as he is full of hell. At least he was back then. He was fishing in the front of the boat which was a 14 foot aluminum (if I spelt that bad boy right it is acidental) boat. I was in the rear where I handled the motor.
Charlie was not really a neatnic and neither was I. We drank the beer and threw the empties in the bottom of the boat. In the front. The damn things were all over the place!.
I had to take a leak and stood up to do so over the side. I stood in the back, facing rear and with my left hand on the motor for balance, unzipped and started a relaxing so I could proceed with the next step. That is a little hard in a rocking boat.
Now that big bastud Charlie decided he would stand up for some damn fool reason. 6ft 4 225 lb Charlie ain't no damn ballerina at his best and he sure the hell wasn't at his best with 8 or so beers in him. The boat rocked and I looked over my shoulder just in time to see the sucker slip on a damn empty beer can and fall half out of the boat. On the same side I was standing on. Now I weighed about 220 at the time with his 225 and him a falling, the damn left side of the boat went under! He was a wallering around like the damn fool he was and the damn boat was in danger of rolling right over. The side of the boat was under about 4 inches and was flooding. I was a standing there with my brains in my hand and the only thing I could think of doing, on such short notice, was to jump overboard. Which I did!
The boat, being relieved of my weight, rightened itself and Charlie was relieved of my fate which at that time was freezin my ass off. He was wet but not as wet as I! Not by a long shot!
I was lucky in the fact that the water was only armpit deep. I didn't have a clue of this at the time. The good thing about the depth is the fact that the very tip of my damn head was not froze. The rest of me was though. I did mention that the water was ice a couple earlier didn't I?
Now the need to pee had dwindled to almost nothing along with my pee-er! Lets just say I wasn't at my best any more. Charlie stood up, he never learns, and asks something like, "What you doing in there?" Peeing you damn fool!
He comes back and helps me into the boat. There was a good 8 or 10 inches of water in there but it did not go over. I didn't really give a good crap if Charlie had gone in with me and if I did the feeling had left me when the damn fool started laughing. I was worried about the fishing equipment.
We headed back to camp and I changed and we cleaned up the boat. I was kidded about that for quite some time after that!!