1/21/10

Bluegills and Bare Feet

Old Man Winter arrived full force a month ago, but last night he  came out loaded for bear.  It was 29 below zero at 7:15 this morning. Lori could hardly believe school wasn¹t called off. That¹s awful cold for little kids to stand out and wait for the school bus. And maybe things are different nowadays but I seem to remember it was never very warm inside the bus either. What happens if the bus breaks down on one of our many backwoods or back country roads? At 29 below the skin begins to freeze in 15 minutes.

Seems to me a broke down bus out here is not going to be fixed in that short of a time. Maybe nothing happened today but when it¹s that cold in the morning I have to believe the kids are better off staying in bed.

Of course it¹s real cold out in the woods, too. When I was out plugging in cars at 4:00 this morning I could hear tree branches snapping loud, like rifle shots.  It¹s moisture inside that freezes then kind of explodes.

That¹s cold!

But then, there is a silver lining. This kind of weather makes me a better fisherman. The pain and discomfort that comes when it gets this cold is forever imprinted in my consciousness. It¹s not easy to forget, not even six months from now at high summer.

In summer, any time I need a little motivation to go fishing all I have to do is think back to the cold season. Even if it¹s just to go for bluegills from my pier, in the hot sun, with my bare feet dangling in the warm lake water. It really doesn¹t get much better than that.

Believe me, hard winters make for better fishermen in thesummer. But besides the good summer fishing Old Man Winter also motivates me to go out in the woods everyday in the spring. In fact, as soon as the temperature gets back above zero I¹m out there for an hour or so at a time. But there have been March days when the temperature hits 40 degrees. When that happens I throw on a hooded sweatshirt, pack a lunch and stay out in the woods all day long. Man, it doesn¹t hardly get better than that, either.

Yes Sir, for all the complaining, the howls and gnashing of teeth over the woes of Old Man Winter he is a great motivator for outdoorspeople. I mean, I can almost feel it already ... Summer! That stays imprinted on my mind, too. I can hardly wait for the warm breezes, when the only thing cold is beer from the cooler, and all that¹s on my mind is bluegills and barefeet.