Mishaps happen all the time

On my last blog I wrote about my problem with Microsoft Publisher. It seems I’ll have to live without it. Why don’t things run smoothly? Why do they have to go wrong so often?

I think the Universe is a joker and troublemaker. Just when you think everything will go smoothly from now on something else happens. Take our last fishing trip for instance. Things have not gone without a hitch on most of our fishing trips. The one last week was no exception.

My friend Rudi made up a new rig for keeping caught fish alive in the water, usually the Pike when fishing with the boat. We have a live-well for the Walleye. We lost one chain the same day when we forgot the key to the boat and had to fish from the dock and the chain got hung up in some rocks under the dock. On the next trip Rudi used a fish stringer with plastic hooks. Well, the plastic hooks didn’t last long. Most of them broke off because the plastic was too brittle. We lost fish. This last time we had a new stringer made from metal. Everything would go right this time. So we thought.

Things started out great. We had small waves and just a little wind. The sun was shining. A perfect day for fishing, even though the fish didn’t bite as readily as we had hoped, but we were on the water having a good time enjoying the outdoors. We have a contest going. Whoever catches and lands the first keeper Walleye into the boat gets a ‘Loony’ (One Dollar) from the other two in the party. I was lucky to catch the first Walleye and yelled for the net. “I’m looking,” Rudi said. “Hurry up,” I yelled again, getting excited, “I don’t want to lose this one.” “I can’t find it,” Rudi said.

Well, he couldn’t find it because there was no net. We must have lost it on the trip to the lake; it was probably picked up by a gust of wind and blown out of the boat. So we had to flip the fish into the boat. That’s okay with small fish but with larger ones it is more difficult. We had plenty of trouble with the large Pike we caught. When you fish with an 8 pound test line you have to be careful. You can’t just lift the fish out of the water without breaking the line. The fish struggle and they are heavy. Rudi’s son, who was the other member of our party, lost a couple of nice Walleye because he couldn’t bring them into the boat. By the way, he caught most of the Walleye and the two largest. One measured 50 cm and the other one 57 cm. We had to release them because they exceeded the allowable size limit of 45 cm. They would have made nice fillets.

The day ended well. We caught our limit on Walleye and brought home five Northern Pike. Not a bad day of fishing.

Rudi got a new net from his sons for Father’s Day and there should be no more problems, but I have a feeling the Universe is already cooking up some new stuff. We just don’t know yet what that could be.

Oh, there is something I just remembered. Last year I found a nice place near the Red River where I could fish for Goldeye. It is nearby and I could drive close to it. I spent quite a few afternoons there, comfortably sitting in my chair, enjoying the sunshine, and catching Goldeye. Well, that has changed. The Floodway Authorities (a government agency) who look after that part of the Floodway apparently passed responsibilities over to another department of the government. The people who work there decided in their incredible government wisdom to put a locked gate across to the access road. There goes my perfect Goldeye-catching-location.

Thank you, Government, for looking after your taxpaying citizens and denying access to property that belongs to those same taxpaying citizens. Thanks for taking away more of the few pleasures we still enjoy.

So much for today. I have to go out now and do some weeding in my garden. The weeds are beginning to take over.

The 57 cm Walleye