Looking forward to next season
Every year between Halloween and mid-November comes a Saturday when I pine nostalgically in this column about putting the boat in storage for the winter.
In season’s past, I’ve written with a heavy heart about unloading the rod locker and tackle compartments one last time before towing the boat to a rented stall for a few months. It’s not easy to choke off the emotion of a spring, summer and fall full of fun weekends of fishing. Looming long weeks of idle time better spent boating and casting paint a bleak picture.
Today, I report the BassCat is tucked in for the duration of this offseason. The rules of the storage facility are such that I won’t see my boat again until March’s end.
I’m OK with that. It was a good ride, the season of 2015, and I guess I can use the rest. A little R&R will be good for my bones, which admittedly take a pretty good pounding when I’ve got fishing on my mind and the alarm clock rings at 3:45 a.m.
So I won’t be so tedious as to drone on about the sad Saturdays of January and February that I must endure without even a hope of firing a crankbait from the casting deck or flipping a plastic creature to the shady side of a drowned tree trunk.
Nor will I write about the sheer pleasure of throttling up the Mercury outboard at Mosquito Creek Reservoir on a June morning when the only think rustling the surface is the wingbeat of swallows darting in search of emerging bugs.
I also will resist sharing how much I love my magnificent hairstyle after a 60-mph blow dry on a humid day on the lake.
Other unmentionables? Yes, of course.
I could tell you about how much I’ll miss the soothing warmth of the morning sun when it bakes my shoulder blades. Or the satisfaction that a perfectly placed lure generates. Or that amazing sensation that lights up in my head when a bass blasts my buzzbait.
But I promised I wouldn’t whine about putting the boat away for winter, so I won’t. Instead of dwelling on the negative, I think I’ll look ahead to the positives that 2016 will bring.
Like that first day on the water, backing the trailer to splash the boat and letting it glide to a perfect stop on the launch ramp’s dock.
Like the first bass to bite the bait I’ll pitch into a willow bush, the first crappie to dunk my float and the first walleye to tug on the piece of nightcrawler dangling on the hook of my ball-head jig.
Youngstown-Warren-area anglers are lucky to have one of the finest early-season lakes anywhere: Mosquito Creek Reservoir. Mosquito in the springtime is like honey to Winnie the Pooh. We can’t get enough of it in the weeks after ice-out.
Erie is another plus sign. I’m 100 percent positive I’ll enjoy some great smallmouth bass action and a walleye trip or two on Ohio’s great lake.
While it’s tempting to fret about the end of the season (but I promised I wouldn’t), the fact is it’s better to focus on the opportunities that await.
With so many lakes just an hour from my house, I know I’ve got plenty to look forward to in the 2016 season.
Like I said up top of this column today, I’m OK with putting the boat up for a few months because I’m that much closer to the good fishing to come. Fresh starts are always fun.