Every spring I get together with my pals Jim Brogan, Tom Preston and a group of our friends at TomÂ’s camp in Quebec for our annual 4-day lake and speckled trout fishing trip.
Over the years weÂ’ve seen all kinds of weather, from hot, sunny, mosquito infested days to cold north winds and even snow. This year we met up with some nasty conditions and the only thing missing was the snow making for some extreme fishing conditions.
The pre-fish PARTAY starts on the eve of opening with tales about the first, the biggest and the most caught from the previous years and plenty of refreshments. Each season we bestow the coveted Toilet Seat Award to the guy that makes the biggest fool of himself – usually one of the young bucks.
I wasnÂ’t in the running for the Toilet Seat Award until I smoked a rock with the propeller and with no spare we had a long and slow eight-mile ride heading into a north wind. Man, it was cold!
Jim and I managed to re-shape the prop enough to keep fishing and I sure got a lot of good-natured ribbing.
IÂ’m pretty sure that was a new rock I hit because I canÂ’t recall ever seeing it before. At least I know enough to bring a spare prop next year.
