05/19/24 Recap

Friday evening, Kevin and I went to a local lake where Kevin had caught some fish by wading into the lake. This lake is typically very heavily used. I had never put my boat into this lake so earlier in the day I checked out the landing. It had a double wide ramp and a paved parking lot for a lot of rigs. Not a good sign, from my perspective.

About 5:00 PM when I arrived to launch, the parking lot was already about 60% full and there was a lot of activity. I launched the boat and parked the truck. Kevin arrived shortly after and we motored to near where he had fished earlier in the week.

It was not long until we started catching fish. We had a pretty steady bite with a fish every few minutes. We caught a variety of sunfish, crappies and bass, with one small perch thrown in. The clouds started to darken to the west and a few boats started back towards the landing. As the sky continued to darken, I checked the radar on my phone and there indeed was a storm headed our way.

We continued to catch fish until we finally decided the storm was close enough. We headed back towards the landing and got into the queue to pull out.

That is when the fun began. First, we had a bigger boat just slowly drive through the waiting boats to pull up to the dock and then jump the line. He had kids on board and it was starting to rain so it was not a big deal. But then, we watched other people struggle to get their boats out and it started to rain harder. To make it worse, there was a bigger boat that would not start, taking up dock space. Some boats were able to load quickly while others struggled.

Our turn finally came and I docked the boat as it started to rain steadily. I ran up to get the truck and got into line. When I was second in line there were two trucks backed into the ramp. One was trying to load the disabled boat. The other just sat there. By now it was raining heavy with occasional lightning and thunder. I sat in line at least twenty minutes without any movement at the ramp. Finally, the truck with the disabled boat got loaded and pulled out only to back down and reload. It turned out that the 4 wheel drive on the other truck had failed and the guy could not get up the ramp. Someone towed him out and the line finally started to move.

I backed down the ramp, jumped in the boat and drove it onto the trailer. Kevin winched it up and we were up and off the ramp in a couple minutes. I drove out of the way and we finished tying the boat down, both soaked by the rain. At least we were off the lake and away from the hoards. I seriously doubt that I will go back to the lake in the evening or on a weekend. Dealing with the crowds is just not worth the aggravation.

Here is the GPS track of the trip. It starts and stops in the lake because I did not turn it on until I was away from the dock and I turned it off while we were waiting to pull out.