Went back home this weekend to spend Memorial Day with the family. On Sat. morning I fished Aeneas Lake. It has slowed down considerably since opening weekend and fished more like its fickle old self. I landed 2 and had 7 others for a moment. Due to an upcoming knee surgery, I am having to fish out of my boat vs. float tube and find I miss a lot more fish by not having my hand on the rod. So I get lots of hit where the reel screems for 1 second but the fish is gone by the time I get the rod up. Everyone else was having a slow day too. I returned on Monday with my little boy to try and get him tied into one of these big guys. We made it about halfway across the lake when a very fiesty fish hit. It came out of the water 4 times and really gave him a tug a war. He was quite excited to get such a fish at seven years old. We fished for another half hour without a bump. I only saw one other fish caught during the short time we were there. Having had a slow outing at Aeneas, I decided to take him over to Fish Lake for some action. (Now the embarassing part.) I have an old aluminum 8 foot boat that I call my prehistoric float tube because I can pack it on my shoulder. Anyway, as we we trying to leave the bank we bumped a rock and it was just enough to offset our balance. Water started coming over the sides. So here we are half tipped over on our left side with my arm up to mid forarem in mud with one the flys embedded in my arm. The net is starting to float away, both rods are in about 6 inches of water and my son is going nuts cause he is getting a bit wet. Well, to make a long story short (and wet), I ended up having to kind of belly roll out of the boat so I could stand up and save the equipment. We were both laughing by this point and ended up soaked. Needless to say, our fishing day was over. Everything came out just fine and all equipment and offspring survived without a scratch. Dad on the other hand...... Patrick McManus would have been proud of this misadventure. Mike Wilson Spangle
