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Saturday, Mar. 15, 2003 - 12:22 p.m. Since Lease had to get up early for work this morning, I decided to wake with her and go fishing. I was dressed and ready to leave by 7am. That is early for me on a Saturday, but if you want to catch fish, you have to be there early. I had to drive through thick, turn-you-wipers-on, 63-car pileup on the Interstate fog to reach the Power Plant Lake. This slowed the drive down substantially. My truck never reached 50 mph, visibility was so poor. When I pulled up to the parking area alongside my favorite winter-early spring spot on the lake (a state route bridge facing towards the hot water discharge on the west side), I was surprised to see how many other people had the same idea as me. There were 13 other vehicles lining both sides of the road! I didn�t really want to try another spot, so I grabbed my gear and started to walk�. Wait a minute! Where was my tackle pouch? I knew I had carried it upstairs from the basement. It should have been there in the back of the truck, but it wasn�t. My first thought was somebody swiped it while I was in the Mohall bait shop. There were 4 trucks there when I arrived, and we all had to wait for the owner to show up (10 minutes late for opening time). Did one of these fellow fishermen steal my old, ratty, filled to the brim soft pouch? And why didn�t they steal my two ultra-light rod and reels, too? I wasn�t totally out of luck. I had two tinsel jigs on one of the rods. I had a small emergency tackle kit in my glove box, too. I have kept stuff in there ever since the day I drove to the Big Lake south of here without any tackle, including on the rod I brought with me. The jigs in the emergency kit were a little big for bluegill, but would do in a pinch. Turned out I didn�t need them. Somehow, I avoided snagging my line. I had most of the tinsel torn off of the smaller jig by the time I left. When the bluegill are hitting aggressively, they tend to tear them up pretty good. If I had wanted to stay much longer, I would have traded the used-up jig for one from the emergency supply. What did I catch? Tons of small bluegill. I managed to cull out exactly one dozen keepers, which I brought home and filleted. They might end up being my supper tonight. I also caught around 10 small crappie. None were legal to keep, so they all went back in the lake. I also hooked one (what I think was) striped bass of some size (over 3 pounds, by the tug I felt from it). I had him on my line for about 20 seconds before he threw the hook from his mouth. Didn�t get to see him, so I can only guess what he was by the way he fought. It was a large fish, whatever it was. If you don�t land them, they don�t count�. Most of the fishermen there today were tossing large lures under the bridge, hoping for stripers. I watched a few of them leave with wire fish baskets containing a few smaller white bass, with a couple for stripers tossed in. Of the 20 or so people on my side of the bridge, I would say 12 of them were inches from each other, throwing their lures into the same small area. The other fishermen were all (I mean ALL) Asian men. Southeast Asian? Chinese? Thai? I don�t know for sure, but only the youngest spoke any English. They asked me questions about what I was catching, and what lures and bait I was using. They then told the elders what I told them, in their native tongue. After a little while, whenever I added another keeper bluegill to my bucket, the two elders to my right would turn to me and say �Bluegill!� with big smiles on their faces. I thought that was pretty cool�.. There are many immigrants here in southern North Dakota from Southeast Asia. Missionaries helped relocate many South Vietnamese after the fall of Siagon back in the late 1970�s. I don�t know for sure if these were some of that group, but they did look more Vietnamese than Chinese. Their kids all grew up here, and learned English in school. It seems like many of the older adults still haven�t learned it well enough to converse. Maybe the men next to my spot today haven�t been here long. Families save enough money to bring other relatives over whenever they can, it seems. All I can say is this: they keep the larger bluegill too. Not many other people seem to. If they keep bluegill, they are o.k. by me. I wouldn�t mind tasting the way they cook them, too��.. Oh yeah, about the tackle pouch? It was sitting on the kitchen table when I came home. I set it there when I grabbed a diet Mt. Dew from the fridge this morning. The mind is the first thing to go�.. I�m out of here. Codeman is supposed to be scrimmaging against the J.V. squad this afternoon. I want to watch this from a distance. Codeman said that the parents of the three sophomores have been standing right next to the dugout, telling their boys where they should be, and making fun of any misfortune that happens to the other players. The Coach went off on them yesterday at practice. He told them he would put up a flashing neon sign saying, �Keep out!� at the dugout�s opening, if that�s what it takes to get through to them. He also said that he was the only coach of this team, and that if they didn�t shut their mouths he would have them banned from our games. I don�t usually side with this man, but I am all with him on this issue. Once your child makes a high school sports team, your role as manager is over. Help them all you want on your time, but just sit back and watch the team when he is at school. Cheer all you want, but keep your criticism of players and the coach to yourself. I just knew these three dads would be a problem. I have walked away from them several times in the past 2 years at Codeman�s games. Yeah, that�s right- they were watching the varsity games BEFORE their boys were even in high school! Whenever they started badmouthing another player, I had to walk away lest I lost my temper. I didn�t respond before because their children weren�t even playing with my son�s group. This spring, I will not walk away. I will probably make a few enemies with these three, too. I don�t want to hear any more crap about how great their boys are, and how much better they are then the other players. I don�t like being the hard-ass, but I will gladly do so if these bozos don�t cut this crap out�.
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