My Last Fishing Trip
By: Anthony Thompson

Well, my son, myself and two of his friends rented 2 cabins at sunset lake, all set for 2 days fishing. My wife and her mother, who lives with us went to Kansas too see our new grandchild.

Thursday night I got in 5 minutes late and had to look up the owner at home for everybody had gone home and nobody left out the keys so we could get in. After a cheeseburger and fries we unpacked, at 85 degrees outside we had the the a/c cranked up to the max and I caught the summer cold of a life time, sick all night and half the next day.

I struggled through the night praying that the lord would still let this turn out to be a great fishing trip for us. I was up at 5:00am Friday, still under the weather, to try fishing off the dock, being that the boys were still in bed. Getting up early for them is noon...... whatever.

When they finally got up we all took both of our boats out and headed out to bag our limit. My boat was on it's first time out and had a few rough spots (motor speed, new fish finder, ect.) Little kinks to work out. Needless to say fishing was slow and not all that good the first day. That night I went out myself, the boys went to town as young men will, I got a couple of good strikes, but no fish.

Saturday I laid in bed with a small fever, slept all day and half the night. I awoke about 3:00am Sunday determined to make this last day worth something. I got all the boys up at 6:00am and away all 3 of us went, do or die this time. We pulled out into the stumps, good bass habitat and got a few strikes. The fishing was slow so we moved to the east shore, and pulled up in some lily pads and waited.

We noticed the boat sat a little low in the water, but this was our first time out in this boat so maybe it was supposed to ride low.

I was using a 6" red shad. After casting out twice and getting caught on a stump once I gave it one more attempt, "Bingo!" he hit and the fight was on. I kept saying "I got him! I got him! And he practically jumped into the boat. My son took him off the hook and put him in the live well, which was

almost over flowing. I looked down and the drain in the middle of the boat was bubbling water up, so we decided we better head for shore (about a mile away). By the time we navigated through the logs, the water was up to our hind ends and we had to put my son all 300lbs. in the bow seat to keep the stern from going under. Well we limped into shore and got out just before the back end, (stern of the boat) sunk into the lake.

Being that we were on some grass, I got the truck and pulled her up onto land a little more. Then someone got the bright idea, "why not use the bilge pump" and in 5 minutes she was dry as a bone.

I neglected to tell you that it had rained both nights we were there, first time the boat was out and first bass boat I ever had. Oh' the drain plug was a little loose also, just minor things you learn when fishing from a boat.

All in all, it was an interesting weekend and a learning experience for all involved, but for somebody who loves fishing, well worth the experience.