06-24-2011, 12:45 AM
Finally put a trip together with my Father after weeks of trying and his choice was the Berry. In his day he has caught tons of fish out of that lake and it has a close spot in his heart. I was way excited for the trip. We were on the road early and hit Renegade at 6:45. The water looked beautiful, higher than I have ever seen it in my lifetime. The fish were boiling slightly. A beautiful morning for sure. But the fun then started. I looked back as I was backing the boat into launch and notice we had blown a tire and shredded it. And of course these were brand new tires and the spare just happen to be sitting at my dads home. What the heck, lets fish and worry about that later, Back the boat (14' aluminum) and water is shooting in the back, I had just installed a new fish finder for him and one of the screws went through the transom and water was gushing in! Boat back out find something to plug the leak, (30 min wasted) Back in the water, launch the boat, motor won't start (started perfect at home) find out we have a bad hose, Go see if the marina carries what we need, NOPE, drive to Strawberry Bay Marina, no hose but they have a connector. Back to Renegade, fix hose fire up motor (45 min wasted) Head out for some fishing, way excited, I let out to troll over to where we wanted to jig across the bay and my pole gets hit hard, a good long fight and in comes a 22" bow! Nice fish, this could be a good day after all. We let back out and troll across the bay with no more action. Get set up to Jig and my first drop, Wham nice hit but couldn't hook him. Fish for another hour and the infamous strawberry wind kicks up. And being in a 14' Aluminum boat with a supsect motor with white caps coming is a bit nerve racking. We reel in and start across the bay, the gas hose is still giving us fits, the waves are getting bigger and we are getting soaked. 45 minutes later we hit the dock relieved. So now we have to deal with the flat tire with no spare, Come to find out my truck Lug wrench is the wrong size (why not) and some really cool guy lent us his. Get the tire off and drive 50 miles home get the spare, get a new tire, the right lug wrench, a new gas hose and back to the Berry we go. Finally at 3:00 we get back to the lake. When we get back to the Lake the wind is still whipping pretty good, I asked my Dad if he would like to stay for the evening and see if we could get some fishing in and all he would say is "no son, lets go home while where ahead" So we did. Even though everything went wrong, we were safe, and it was great to be with my dad, Not many days like that ahead with him aging like he is. All that is Behind us now so next week everything will go right and the fish will be biting and we will have a great time (at least we hope!!)
I did talk with a few guys and the fish have been biting pretty good, but as usual at the Berry it where you find them, Its seem to be either feast or famin at that lake any more!
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I did talk with a few guys and the fish have been biting pretty good, but as usual at the Berry it where you find them, Its seem to be either feast or famin at that lake any more!
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