When I put the boat away in the
fall of 2012 I knew it would be a long time before I’d be out on the water again, but boy, you forget how long that really is! When you close up for the winter, you’ve just finished a full season of fishing and boating, and you are full of memories of a great summer, but after 6 months of no boating or fishing, those memories seem pretty distant. Well all is well now, as the local conservation lakes officially opened today, May 1st, and I was on the lake after work tonight with the family.
For me, the fishing boat is partly for me, for fishing, and partly for me to enjoy boating with Carolyn and the kids. Tonight was a wonderful evening, with clear skies, low wind, and only 5 bo
ats on the entire lake. I didn’t have my seats in, or my electronics hooked up, but we did have a nice BBQ at the lake, followed by about 45 minutes touring around. It was really nice to feel the stress leave me as I boated around the lake, enjoying the scenery, the joy in the kids faces, and that great feeling of doing things as a family. We went with our friends Scott and Yvette who just purchased their own boat, and it was great to see them get out the first time to enjoy the night.
One of the advantages of boating together, was that occasionally I was able to shoot across 
their wake and bounce off the waves. This of course in very exciting to a 3 and a 5 year old who are screaming in an nice combination of terror and excitement. Both kids of course took turns helping me drive the boat, and after towards the end snuggled with Mom up front and nearly fell asleep. So our first outing is under our belt, and now it’s time for me to fix a few leaks I noted, get the seats and other gear into the boat, because in a week and a half I’ll be out fishing for opening day for Walleye and Pike, and will hopefully have photos of fish to share with you!
We got our boat out for the first time last weekend. It sure was nice to be on the water again 🙂