Jonathan Cook wrote:
Well, gents (and I use that term lightly), some here
have recently desired to make a new and improved plastic
fishing boat, but I say that I do believe I've found it.

Mostly he wanted to SPAM us with commercials for his
existing plastic boat. He lasted what, three days ?
That's about two days longer than most SPAMmers.

It is a decrepit, at-least-ten-years-old plastic
paddleboat(*), at least when slid off a muddy bank and
occupied by your brother and yourself for a lazy 2 hours
of afternoon fishing on a 1-acre pond and catching up
on a year's worth of happenings, two near-40 year olds
paddling around a pond like they were 10 and 12 again...

My brother accomodated my flailing flyline, and we
caught not a few small bass (up to 12") and nice
pan-sized bluegill, me mostly on foam contraptions,
but the prize of the day was a big, thick bluegill that
I could barely palm in one hand. Not the biggest of
my life (I won't soon top one that hit a mini-Rapala
in a golf-course pond a long time ago, unless I visit
Big Dale and he shows me his honey-spots), but the
biggest I've seen in probably two decades.

But of course the fishing wasn't the real point anyways...

Aside from flyfishing the small Ohio pond, we were nearly
skunked on Lake Erie but were able to enjoy (an understatement!)
a lunch of fresh walleye one day, and if anyone remembers
pics of fly-caught smallmouth from a secret spot along the
Erie shore that I posted years ago, it's no longer accessible
so that adventure is over...

Sounds like a pleasant enough homecoming, even if your
smallie spot is gone. Thanks for the report.

--
Ken Fortenberry