It seems as though no story can be seen as humorous unless one of the characters in the story does something ridicules. Well, this story is no different. It all takes place in May of 1964, at Knox Lake. For those of you not familiar with Knox Lake it is a State owned lake just north of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. During this time period Knox Lake was a very good Crappie fishing lake, especially in the spring of the year during the spawn. The East end of the lake was flooded timber with a lot of brush through-out. My dad was an excellent Crappie and Bluegill fisherman and knew Knox Lake like the back of his hand. This particular morning it was overcast, the air temperature was around 55 with a breeze of 10 to 15 mph. even though it wasnt real cold the air felt pretty brisk when the wind was blowing. Pop had said the best fishing was probably going to be in an area that ranged from 8 to 12 feet in depth. We arrived at the South shore around 7:30 AM and began to unload my 10 foot pram. We always traveled pretty light and today was no exception; boat cushions, oars, a military gas mask bag with tackle, minnows, wax and meal worms, a collapsible fish keep and both had a fiberglass extension pole, a bag with lunch and a couple of thermoses with coffee. We got everything loaded in the boat and I took my car to park it. As I was locking my car another vehicle pulled up. A nice a shiny Jeep Cherokee with two fellows in it. They pulled down close to the water where my dad was with my boat and ask my dad if this was the place to launch the boat. My dad told them it was the only place around close. As I was walking back to the boat, these two guys are getting out of their car. Now let me tell you they looked like real dudes. Right out the pages of the Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. They had an 18 foot Grumman canoe tied to the top of their car and had a difficult time figuring how to get it off. I thought to myself, Damn . What are these guys doing here? Finally after a few minutes they get the canoe unloaded and start taking things out of their car. They had boat cushions, two paddles, each one of them had a very large tackle box, a cooler, they must have had 6 rod and reel combos between them, a bait bucket, a radio, a dip net and a fish keep. By this time I was back to my boat and we had shoved off. About the time we got the first stroke of the oars, one of the guys yelled at us and asked, Where is the best place to fish? My dad responded, Any place out here in the trees and brush. Well, we thought we were through with these guys and rowed about 50 yards out onto the lake and we wedged the boat into a fork of a partly sunken tree and I loosely tied the other end to a branch. Well, Pop wasnt one to mess around much and before I could get the boat tied he had a minnow in the water. For some unknown reason I glanced back towards shore just as the two Dudes shoved off in their canoe. At first I couldnt believe what I was looking at. They had not much more than 2 inches of freeboard left and these two guys had undoubtedly never been in a canoe before. I about wet my pants laughing while trying to get my dads attention to look at them. They are sitting facing each other and trying to paddle forward. Needless to say they werent going anywhere. My dad just shook his head and said, That is an accident, just waiting to happen. By the time these two guys figured out how to paddle their canoe my dad had caught his first Crappie and of course one of the guys saw it. This was of course and invitation for them to head straight for us. When they got about 10 feet from us they ask, What kind of fish was that? and at the same time was trying to find a branch to tie to so they could fish right next to us. My dad didnt mix words with ignorant people . He said, It was a Crappie, now get the hell out of here and find some place else to fish. They acted a bit surprised, but moved off about 20 yards. As they were moving away one of them cranked up their radio with some ungodly kind of music that could be heard probably the length of the lake. Theses two guys had no idea what they were doing and moved into an area of about 12 feet of water with a bunch of small trees protruding from water. About this time I caught a Crappie and my attention was diverted to my own thoughts. Just as I put the Crappie in the keep my dad said, Watch this, this ought to be interesting. I turned around to see the one guy in one end of the canoe tying a rope to a tree, While the guy in the end had a rope wrapped around another tree. The guy with the second rope gave a good tug on the rope and stretched it up nice and tight. Then they both stood up and turned around to go back toward the middle of the boat. The next thing you saw elbows and butt holes flying through the air as the canoe flipped in a complete 180 dumping tackle, radio (thank God), coolers, boat cushions and everything and everyone into 12 feet of water. My dad and I just looked at each other as the two Dudes came bobbing to the top. The canoe was tied so tight that it spun right around and righted itself. I ask my dad if he thought we should go help them. He said, Lets see if they can work it out for themselves first. Their first two attempts to get back into the canoe were fruitless, until they realized they needed to cut one end loose. Then they were able to climb up on some branches and get back their canoe. Needles to say the only surviving equipment was their cushions, paddles and their cooler. They didnt have much to say as they canoed past us on their retreat. Of course Pop had to get the word in, as they past us he said, You guys didnt have very good luck today. They didnt respond. After they left we couldnt stop laughing for about a week after .. as a matter fact I am still laughing Garry- :wink:
i took a buddy of mine to lake that allows no motors, my buddy never fished before and i was going to try to get him on some bass, well to much surprise he had never canoed either, i told him not to stand up cause i dont want to flip and loose my tackle, he was good for about an hour and as he stood to "stretch" his legs, he managed to get the canoe tipping and instead of diving out to save the boat from capsizing he sits down and the canoe rolled over with all my stuff sinking to the bottom. it was probally 9 or 10 foot deep and i managed to get alot of my stuff back, i was mad, real mad, so for retiredtofish i know what its like to be on the other end, it aint fun! lol great story it brought back memories..lol
Gary that was a great story. It has a very nice rhythm like the shallow waves liking the side of a canoe sitting on Knox lake. sometimes. Almost felt the sun and warm breeze just wish I could of seen that one in person though, lol I still get bait there, but fish it less than I used to.
Thanks for sharing that story Garry. Brings back some memories of fishing Knox as a kid. Never capsized anything but did have a crane crash into the front of the canopy on one of the rental pontoons at 3 in the morning. Now let me tell ya that will get your attention.
that is a great story garry:smile2: if only you would have went and drug for their lost equipment, that would have been my next move!:wink: rollo
Good that you mention about dragging for the stuff .... I ask my Dad about doing that and he said, "No I am afraid too much Stupidity might have rubbed off on to it." .... and you know ..... "Father Knows Best." ..... garry-
great post lol ive seen that or close to it a few times, i live on the south side of knox lake and fish there a lot, still some good crappie fishing and channels, and a few flats, i just hope it warms up soon was -2 when i started the car for work this mornin, i need to fish
I hope to be able to get to Knox Lake this spring and see if I can the Crappies again .... I don't know if there are any trees left standing or not .... Garry- :confused2:
Thought I would bump this up in case anyone missed it ... and aren't going to sinker meeting ... Garry- :cool2:
