Mooring Day
May 1st is the first day that my local state
park (just 10 minutes away) officially allows boats to moor up to their
berthing spots. Last year, it was the
latter half of May before even close to half of the boats had found their way
out to the lake. This year’s
exceptionally mild spring meant that many anglers were ready to have their
boats out the middle of March. I was no
exception. Although I have a sit-on-top
kayak, having a car to transport meant it is not very convenient to transport
my kayak every fishing day.
So this was my 2nd year of purchasing a shoreline
mooring spot. I had been out in my
kayak several times already but I was really looking forward to being out on
the water every day off. I have to
admit, I was anticipating this like a kid anticipating a trip to the zoo! I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night
before yet I was wide awake and full plans for the day.
I have the only kayak next to a varied lot of plastic and aluminum
skiffs, most pretty small. The larger
boats have floating docks on the side opposite the boat launch and there is
also a kayak tree for (lighter) kayaks and canoes. Having a spot on the beach is great; I can be
in the water in less than 10 minutes. If
I was more organized it would take less than 5 minutes. This includes unlocking and removing the
heavy cabling that I use to secure my kayak, installing the seat, situating my
gear where I like it, and stowing my gear bag in the front hatch.
Of course, there are disadvantages too! Like the time a huge toad jumped out from
under my kayak when I turned it over.
Since it was still dark it about scared the..well you know what out of
me. This happened a couple of mornings
in a row. Even worse, one morning I reached down to turn my kayak
over and there was a dark shape huddled under it (I started looking before
turning after the toad). It being dark
again (I like to paddle to my first fishing spot before dawn breaks to get that
early bite) I couldn’t make out what it was.
I got out my flashlight and to my dismay it was a raccoon. A couple of proddings with the blade of my
paddle and I determined it was dead.
This really creeped me out…I mean all I could think of was that perhaps
it had rabies and crawled underneath to die.
I called the park rangers later that morning and they apparently came
and picked it up because it was gone when I got back. An additional call a couple of weeks later
and I found out that did not have rabies but they did not know what it died of.
Most of the time there was no scary things popping out and I
was out on the water paddling with anticipation of another great day. The cool things I see definitely outweigh the
creepy. Bald Eagles swooping down and
gliding back up with a large fish in it’s claws, beavers on shore and in the
water, loons calling, deer at the lake edge, and porcupines just to name
some. Needless to say, there is also
the numerous bluegill ‘kisses’ at the water surface, the carp jumping in their
spawning dance, and the occasional explosion at the water surface as a bass
pounces on its prey.
So now it has been three weekends since mooring day and I
have been out fishing five times since.
The only day I missed out in the kayak was because I was sick. I anticipate another sleepless night next
May!
