It aint all bad!!!!

[Eric Wettschreck]

Life has been pretty hectic for me lately between work, graduations, side jobs, blah, blah, blah and I have not had much fishing time. Friday night a friend of mine and I were sitting around doing what we do best, absolutely nothing, and made the declaration that tomorrow, no matter what, we fish!!!!

Saturday we hit one of the more popular SW MN potholes, Lake Shetek. I saw and heard a few things that reminded me that it just ain't all that bad.

We pulled up to the landing and there was a guy, with his family, trying to launch his boat and having problems. My buddy immediately went over, gave the guy a hand, he was in the water, we got a thank you, and we backed in.

I have a few waypoints marked that we wanted to try and we hit the first spot. A few minutes later another boat pulled up and I heard them say, "Dang. These guys are right where we want to be. Don't get too close, let's not crowd them."

Later on, we were trolling a shoreline and saw the guy we helped launch. One of his small kids just pulled in a bullhead and they were hootin and hollerin and high fivein and havin a great time on the lake. We gave them a hoot and holler and got waves and thanks in return. Dad took a picture of his kid with the fish and the smile was ear to ear.

Shetek is a busy lake with lots of boat traffic. There were a lot of pleasure boaters, PWC's, and skiers out. I didn't see a single boat come anywhere close to another, and there was no crowding of anyone.

Later in the afternoon, we saw the guy we helped launch (again), only he wasn't fishing, he was towing another boat. What goes around comes around.

At the end of the day we hit the landing, of course it was a little busy and we floated around for a few minutes waiting for our turn. I saw a guy having trouble backing his trailer in. Another guy walked up and said, "Need a hand?" and backed the trailer in for him.

It was pretty much the perfect day on the water. I FINALLY got a chance to get on the lake, no boat problems, I got to mess around with my new electronics a bit, nice people, lots of waves back and forth, no crowding, no boat landing screaming matches, sunny and calm, families out enjoying the day, and I actually caught a couple of keepers.

Just tossin this out as we have all seen our share of "Bad" things on the water. We have to remind ourselves from time to time that it ain't always that bad, sometimes things go our way and we can all have a perfect day on the lake.

[UdeLakeTom]

Great story BG...that is what is should be about!!

[motley man]

Ain't that the way it's supposed to be. I'm glad to hear a story like this. There are alot of good people out there, and they make up for the bad attitude's.

[Grum]

Great story of a great day, thanks for sharing, I hope everyone has one of these at least once in a while. Kindness can be just as contagious as anger, only more rewarding.

[ranger20]

nice story i wish it was like that all the time

[Neighbor_guy]

I spent a few hours on a quiet lake this morning and also had a good experience. For the first time all year no one ran a boat right threw a weed line or bed I was fishing, and I was not buzzed by any pleasure boaters. Everyone was keeping distance from each other. I even had a guy tell his kids to "turn that radio down, that guy is fishing!!!, you dont hear his radio blasting do you???"

A nice quiet day (or a few hours in my case) on the water is much more enjoyable than a crazy one.

The only coment I have is this.... The loading/unloading dock at the landing is NOT A FISHING PIER!!!!!

[broken_line]

good story bg! its nice to see that people have respect for eachother around here! i dont mean to hi jack this thread but im naturally better at backing up to docks on the left side of me and if there is some one fishing the left side dock is it still ok to back in there even if the other is empty?? i hate to hold up a landing for more than a 1 min cuz i cant back up to docks on the right..

[paceman]

Great story Boiler. I think the warm summery weather saturday had everyone in a good mood. My day was very similar to yours. Busy little lake, lots of boats but everybody kept there distance. I even threw out a marker and not one boat came in to it. It was very strange. Granted most guys were pan fishing and we were walleye rigging but the ones that were working the same break would turn around before they came to close....It was awesome....

[Sandmannd]

Great story. Those are the ones we need to hear more of. Glad to see the guy you helped was helping others. That's what the outdoors is about.

[Sifty]

Thats a great story BG.

It is nice to see there are still people out there that will lend a helping hand.

Sifty