30 August 2007
A Week of Hell With A Happy Ending
Posted by Darrell under: Rantings Of An Outdoorsman .
Seemingly, I dropped off the face of the earth for a few days. The boat I bought for spearfishing quickly became a nightmare. I literally skipped work (and everything else in life including my blogging duties) for the past several days and worked on the crazy thing night and day. Jeff, a friend of mine, was right there beside me for a lot of that time.
Finally, I finished it! Yesterday afternoon we (Jeff, Billy, and I) headed for the lake. If you’ve never pulled a 40′ long trailer topped with a huge boat (standing over 12′ tall) through some of the curviest, hilliest, and narrowest roads in our great country… then you probably wouldn’t understand why I pulled most of my hair out yesterday.
But, we did make it to the lake and being the eternal optomists and outdoor enthusiasts that we are we took along our dive gear and a tank of air each. Truthfully, I was shocked that we actually made it to the lake without incident and even more surprised when the boat started right up and ran like a top. All the electrical components worked great, too.
It was almost dark by the time we made it to the lake so we did a quick dive. Jeff and I both had our dive lights so the pitch black dive was fine for us. Billy had lost his light somewhere and his dive was cut short by virtue of a pitch black evening. Jeff took a nice blue catfish and I took 3!
Talk about a happy ending! Three nice catfish on one short dive. It doesn’t get better than that. A week of mind numbing work on an uncooperative boat is already seeming to pay off. I learned a valuable lesson. A couple days ago I was wondering what a stick of dynamite would do to that crazy boat. Now, I’m really glad to have it awaiting my return to the lake. Sometimes, we become so pre-occupied with the labors of our efforts that we forget about the future rewards.
If this doesn’t make sense, I apologize, as I’m operating on about ZERO sleep.
10 Comments so far...
Jon Says:
30 August 2007 at 5:04 pm.
Lack of sleep didn’t hurt this good post. Did you spear the cats or “grab” them? I get the willys reaching under rocks and trying to pull these things out!
Bryan Says:
30 August 2007 at 5:10 pm.
Nice Cats! I also wonder if you speared or grabbed them. I once read about guys that lure a rope through the mouth and gills of channel cats. Either way, glad you found the light at the end of the tunnel!
Darrell Says:
30 August 2007 at 5:32 pm.
Hello Jon and Bryan. We speared them. I don’t know why, but grabbing ‘em gives me the willys, too!
Arthur Says:
30 August 2007 at 9:49 pm.
Pretty cool way to cat fish. Not something you will ever catch me doing cause I’m a fraidy cat, but very cool. Glad all the hard work paid off.
Dana Says:
30 August 2007 at 10:20 pm.
Great picture! Do you dive scuba-style with air tanks, or just with a snorkel? Wet suit?
Phillip Says:
31 August 2007 at 10:53 am.
You gotta love it when everything comes together. Congrats on sticking it out and making the best of things.
Congrats on a mess of nice cats, too.
Darrell Says:
31 August 2007 at 2:10 pm.
Thanks all for the commendation! I use full scuba with air tanks. Although, when the water is warm like it is now, I rarely use a wet suit. You don’t get cold unless you go below the thermacline.
You don’t have to scuba dive to enjoy spearfishing though. You can free dive and do just as well, assuming that you are proficient at holding your breath. There are lots of catfish hanging out at 10-15 feet deep. On many lakes you can see this deep by snorkeling from the surface.
Matt Says:
31 August 2007 at 2:21 pm.
Nice fish. Sounds like a lot of fun. Glad your hard work paid off.
Kristine Shreve Says:
5 September 2007 at 10:46 am.
I was wondering where you’d been. Glad to hear the boat is finally done and you had a successful trip with it.
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