Dead in the Water

Alas, another boating season has come and gone.

The boat came out last week, it's already been winterized and shrink wrapped, and all I have to do now is pull the batteries off and bring them home for the winter.

The perch fishing was dismal this year. It got too hot too fast, and the weather didn't cooperate most weekends. There were maybe 5 good weekends for fishing...when the weather was comfortable and the waves were less than 3 feet. That accounts for this year's small catch. We caught 212 perch this year, with nearly half of them coming in the last weekend (97 perch on October 1 and 2). That compares to 475 perch last year, and 574 in 2003.

My usual practice of taking perch to my local watering hole on OSU football Saturdays will be reduced to one game this year, most likely the Michigan game. I'm not sure why I do it, many people eat it that don't even say 'thank you.' Some do appreciate it, and they show it by buying me a beer. But when I think about what it costs, in both time and money, to get that perch into the deep fryer, I'm sure I'd be better off just buying my own beer. But, hey, I'm a sharing kind of guy.