Scariest fishing trip #3

I thought I would tell of my three scariest fishing trips in honor of Halloween.

It was a great weather day for fishing. I guess we didn't know enough to check the weather like we do today. I had bought a 12 foot hand made wooden row boat from an advertisement in the paper. It was small enough to carry on the top of my 1956 Chevrolet Bel-Air. The car was a two door hardtop with a 256 V8. I had done the body work on the car and painted it 49 Ford red. It was the reddest red my friend junior and I could get mixed to paint the car.

My Dad the original Fishing Guy and I loaded the boat onto the car early morning and headed for Pymatuming Lake on the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio. It is a big lake but only 30 foot deep at the center. We launched at the Bay 41 ramp and rowed out to an island near the bay. There is one problem with a large shallow lake. The weather can take a toll on the lake. Needless to say a storm blew in about 10 AM and we headed for the closest shore, the island. We were about 300 yards from the main shoreline and the car. Now that may not seem far but in a row boat in bad weather it was a long way.

The storm blew in and stayed over us. It was raining so hard you almost could not see the main shore line. We stayed on the island with no signs of the rain letting up. After about an hour Dad asked if we should head for shore. I said lets go and started bailing the boat out. Talk about a losing battle I was hardly staying even with the rain and the wind was blowing hard and blowing waves into the boat. I thought we were going to capsize and drown.

Dad was rowing, he had worked in the steel mills all his life and was a tough old geezer. It was really hard rowing and I wasn't keeping up with the bailing either. Finally, we could see the bay near the dock. I was still shaking when we reached the dock. Dad asked if I wanted to fish the bay and I said "I had almost died and could come back to fish a different day". I was not fishing anymore that day. We could have died if the boat had completely filled with water from a wave. I never fished bay 41 again. I also didn't keep the boat long and moved to a larger aluminum boat.