Thread: Fishing Adventures of Rich and Lisa this weekend

We left St. Louis at 7 a.m. Sat morning and headed to Crab Orchard Lake in IL. We knew there had been serious storms in the area but had no idea of the magnitude of destruction until we were driving down I-57. Once we hit Hwy 13 in Marion, all the stoplights were out, damage everywhere.

We check in at the Ranger Station to get our truck/boat passes for the day and they informed us they were advising people not to go on the lake - well, we had driven 2 hours to catch crappie (and try out our new (old) boat we had purchased on Thursday) so we went ahead and headed to the lake. The road to the boat ramp we normally use was impassable, so we headed to another ramp and were able to launch.

We actually did not have any problems on the lake although it was not the normal day of fishing on crab, water had risen significantly but did manage to keep around 25 with the largest at 12 1/2 and the next 2 largest at 10 1/2 (good size for Crab).. We were pulling out at about 8:15 p.m. and the Ranger came by and asked up to leave immediately as the entire area was under curfew.

We stopped, had dinner up the interstate, husband was tired so we decided to get a room. This morning, we started heading back to St. Louis and there it was - the Exit for Rend lake (which we have never fished)... we went to the lake, paid the daily use fee, backed the trailer down. Husband hopped in the boat and then I was to back him in the water... problem was, I could not get the key to turn... of course I was doing something wrong, he hopped out of the boat, tried himself and guess what - the tumbler for the ignition was broken!

Here we are at a boat ramp, no one in site, 2 hours from home....well, the truck has manual transmission so he decided to try to pop start before calling a tow truck and it worked! Made it home safe and sound and he is happily cleaning fish. Now we just have to get the truck fixed before the next fishing adventure.

You up kinda early mr beagle. Posting before 7.