I know everbody here has had a weekend like this!!

[Cane Pole]

Well, this past Friday, I finally got my Suzuki mounted on the Jon and filled it with oil (one whole quart). It would not start. I fiddled with it and cussed at it a little, still wouldn’t start. Finally figured what that little black clip on a string was for. Put it behind the little red push switch on the tiller handle and zoom-zoom. They changed things a little since 1962. Well, it was late so I called it a night.

Saturday morning after I did my old man early morning maneuvers; I hooked the trailer to the Rhino and started down the hill to the lake. Well I barley got out of the driveway and heard this awful metal grinding sound. At first, I thought I had smacked the skag on the pavement. My heart raced wildly. Crap. I stopped the Rhino and went to investigate the damage. No damage to the skag, but wheel bearings were dripping out the wheel hub and rolling down the hill. Crap II.

I pushed the John back into the driveway and unhitched the Rhino. I then proceeded to get the floor jack and jack the trailer up to remove the wheel. Wee, let me tell you, there is nothing more aggravating than pulling a 10 ton floor jack across a graveled driveway and pushing it under a trailer. Crap III.

I hate to pull hubs. Never fails that I bust a knuckle and get grease all over everything and the cotter key want corporate.. After a few more descriptive adjectives, I finally got the hub off. Threw the tire and hub in the truck bed. Time to go get a new one.

I headed to Paris to see Papacrappie at Parker Marine. Papa was busy, so his boss man scratched through the boxes and found a new bearing that we thought would work. Paid boss man and headed home. I was feeling better now. But that didn’t last.

Got home, sure nuf, wrong size bearings. Crap IV. Back to town I go again. Second trip equals 50 miles. Back to Parkers Marine. Boss man “miked out” a piece of the race and said I needed a 1 inch bearing. Guess what? He didn’t have any 1 inchers. Crap V. Now here is 2 craps in one paragraph. Boss Man sent me to Tractor Supply. They had what I needed.

Finally got back home and was collecting my thoughts (lost them earlier) when Crappie Hunter and his Sweetie pull up (by water). He volunteered to put the wheel back on. I sure didn’t refuse his help.

I finally got old Jon in the water about 12 noon with Todd’s help. I putted over about 30 feet from the launch and shored old Jon to the boat dock. Its now chow time.

Fish weren’t doing much, so Todd and I decided to put out some Cane Condos I had ready. We pulled the seats out of his Triton. Well of course one pedestal had lock jaw. Crap VI. Finally got it out with WD40 and a pipe wrench. I handed Todd some Vaseline and he greased all his seat holes. That Vaseline is marvelous stuff. It will grease any hole. Time to load condos.

We headed across the lake to a secret spot that I am working on and dropped some condos on some good drops. Getting things ready for next spring. Todd was driving and I was marking spots with bouy markers and then we dropped the condos . Finally getting to have some fun after a bad weekend start. Got to see the Humminbird 997 in action. Wow! The fun didn’t last long.

We went back and loaded up for the second trip. This trip, Todd’s sweetie decided she wanted to see what the hello we were doing. We headed out with the condos. I got to chatting (imagine this) and watching the 997 at work. It is spellbinding. Todd was driving and I was marking the drops. After we got all the markers out, Todd circled and I started dropping the condos. We circled again and started picking up the markers. Guess what folks?. I was busy jaw jacking and forgot to unloosen the lead weight on some of the markers. They were just bobbling in the water. Crap VII. Todd side scanned the area and found the condos. Relief! I gotta get one of these things.

Well, things seem to be looking up. Asked Todd to spend the night so he and his sweetie booked out to get by river to pick up his truck and trailer at Port Ramp. They were not gone 15 minutes when the wind came up. Crap VIII. Here is my new motor on the back of John bobbing up and down like a bottle on the Atlantic.

It started that thundering and lightning and raining and something was beating on the back door of the house. It was Mr. and Mrs. Crappie Stalker. They had come up to do a little night fishing and got caught in the storm. Well, we all just kinda took turns watching old Jon bobble in the storm. It was raining hard and wind was high and waves were 2 to 3 feet. Old Jon was justa bobbing. Wasn’t much we could do. Finally, the worst part of the storm passed and Paul went down to check on Old Jon. Paul took my hand held bilge pump down to the boat dock and pumped out the water. It was still lightning in the distance. I ain’t supposed to be out in lightning storms. I have: metal butt, metal foot, metal shoulder, metal head. I’m just like the Tim Man. Ha. Paul pumped out all the water, but reported there wasn’t much water in the boat. I was surprised to hear this as it looked like it was taking the lake in from my view at the house. WHEW!

Storm over! Time to fish. Most minnows dead. It getting late. Vonna and Honey head out to get some minnows. The were gone quiet a whine. Finally got back. Stores were closed or out of minnows except the Counting Lady at Hadacal Grocery. You folks know the type. 1 minn, 2 minnow. Etc.

It was getting dark and we all went out fishing. Everybody caught dinks, but we were fishing.
We finally gave it up for the night and went up to the house and shot the bull and filled our bellies. We all had a large time.

Sunday morning, we went to the pump house restaurant and had breakfast buffet. Good food. All of us were stuffed. Wind came up so we all said heck with fishing. And call it a day. Just before Todd left, a big limb fell out of a tall oak and smashed the roof of my truck. Crap IX. We all had a ball.

[RagflyJigMan]

Hey Cane Pole, please let me know when and where you will be next time because I don't want to be around! Hey just kidding. I hate that you had all that bad luck. It does sound like that you do have some great friends.

[fishingpox]

Well that makes me feel better :rolleyes: , I thought I was the only one who had days like that. Back during my green horn days manit was terrible. I still get in a few four word adjectives myself today.

Glad you had a large time.....

[Miller]

That is a bad day

[crappie cowboy]

D*mn.....

srm

[beenfishin?]

well, least ya got to go fishin a little. As for the rest, man, I feel for ya! Just be thankfull it was only a weekend and not a year.

[anchorpuller]

I guess after last weekend, we know there is one thing yer not full of. :D

Glad you had a good time. What better time for stuff to fall apart than when you have buddies knockin' on the door to fix it

[cook]

Canepole,thanks for your invite to go fishing...I'll have to respectfully decline at this point...I've got to..uhh...errr..wash my hair...maybe another time

[roybuoy]

Dang The Luck.

[DC Crappie Kid]

So I saw the length of that book...I mean thread, and wasn't going to read it. Then I thought, "well, it is Tom...I'll give him 30 seconds to get my attention." And I couldn't quit reading. It was like a car wreck, you know it's bad, but you can't quit looking! Like a bad horror movie, when you know everything is going to go wrong, but you watch it anyway. Stinks that it happened (esp. all at once!), but at least you kept your humor through it!