I grew up in a small town in northern Michigan, with three brothers and a dad that lived to only fish and hunt.
Some my best memories with my Dad was ice fishing during cold Michigan winters. It would be cold, but Dad always had a warm ice fishing shack on the lake.
I was spoiled, because he would always bait my hook and take my fish off the hook. All I did was sit with my line in the water, where Dad had drilled a hole in the ice, and drink a cup of hot cocoa while waiting for a fish to bite.
When we would get home, he would clean the fish and my Mom would fry them up. Ice fishing to me as a little girl met a fish fry and other wonderful sides along with the fish.
Both of my parents are with the Lord now. But I still have wonderful memories of ice fishing with Dad, and eating my Mom’s is great cooking.
As I got older, my friends and I would go smelt dipping. We would set up camp early spring and after dark go into Lake Michigan with buckets, to scoop up as many smelt as we could. Each campsite would have a campfire going to be ready to cook up fresh smelt, what we didn’t cook that night, we take home and freeze for later.
It was always a fun adventure in a different way of fishing.
The best Mother’s Day I ever had was when I went fishing with my 10 year old son. We lived on the lake it was called Island Park, because there was two small islands off the shore of the lake. We would go out to one of the islands and sit on the edge to fish. It was a very good fishing lake and was a great way to spend time together, after a busy week of working in school.
My brother one year went out with three friends on Lake Michigan off Ludington. The weather was good, but cold when they started out. They fished for a short while before the weather changed real quick after they got out about a mile from shore.
Their boat capsized, they were all able to get lifevest on. They got separated in the water. Somehow, they all survived and got to shore on their own, one of them did have to go to the hospital, but ended up being ok.
The next day, they hired someone to help bring the boat in. The boat looks like a giant smashed it to bits. Thank God they all survived it.
Years later after my mom had passed, my dad and my uncle dad‘s brother decided to go fishing together for a day, and my uncle did have a nice small fishing boat.
They took the boat and launched it on a local small lake that was a known good fishing lake in that area.
Mind you as I’m telling you the story, my dad was 79 at the time, my uncle was a little younger. After they launch the boat, they fished for a while and did pretty good, it was a calm, sunny summer day.
They had packed a lunch, they decided to eat a little something, as they moved around a little in the boat, putting out the anchor and getting in the cooler. My dad lost his balance and fell out of the boat. He came up and was a ways from the boat. So my uncle tried to pull up the anchor, so he could row over to rescue my dad. Well, my uncle was a little disoriented and did not good balance like my dad.
Fortunately my dad was a strong swimmer and in good health for his age. It took my uncle 30 minutes to finally get the boat close enough to pick my dad , it took a total of about 30 minutes, because once he got to the boat, he couldn’t get him self back in the boat, he treaded water for 30 minutes and of course lost his eyeglasses.
Thankfully he finally got himself back in the boat, and they did not tip the boat over in the process. Both my dad and uncle have passed since then ,and I picture them both in heaven on a forever fishing trip together.
- Happy Safe Fishing To All