Last Fishing Trip of 2008... Maybe?

Saturday, October 11th with the weather near 70 degrees and mostly sunny, we decided to try to get the boat out just one more time for the year before we have to get it winterized.

We went out on Shawano Lake at about 1:00 pm and fished for a few hours with no luck except for a couple of bites that we missed. We were throwing spinner baits and crankbaits for Bass and Northern Pike. (If we get lucky we could get a Musky.) We put the boat in at Swan Acres landing and fished on the Cecil end as well as by the Historical Marker on Highway 22. We decided to go across the lake over by the Shawano County Park to hit the restrooms before taking a ride down the outlet on the outskirts of town to the Wolf River. Then we would go past the Shawano Medical Center down to the Shawano Dam. We fished the river near the Dam for a little while and decided to give up there too.

That's when we turned around and went under the railroad trestle that goes across the river and went up that way for a mile or so. When we turned around - we had already logged 26 miles on the boat. We returned to the outlet and started back to Shawano Lake snapping pictures all the way when the motor on the boat died. The gas gauge on the boat doesn't work and we ran out of gas. Fortunately, we were only 100 yards or so from Huckleberry Landing - Downtown. (It was getting to be about 4:30 by now.) John walked about a block and a half to a gas station to see if he could borrow a gas can and buy some gas to get us back on our way.

The women behind the counter said they didn't have and gas cans to lend out (and even checked) but she said we do have some to sell. He ended up buying a one gallon gas can for over $4.00 and then another $3-something for gas.

He also used their phone book to get phone numbers for S & S Marine and The Lighthouse Bar who sell gas right on the outlet near the Lake. John put the gas in the boat as Mona called the numbers to see if they were open and if they would still sell gas. S & S Marine said they closed at 5:00 pm but her husband would be working in the back until about 6:00 - we could hunt him down and get gas.

We wanted to make sure we had enough gas to get there so Mona walked back with our newly purchased 1-gallon can to get another gallon of gas. She returned at about 13 minutes to 5:00. John put the second gallon of gas in the tank and we were off flying down the outlet as fast as the boat would go until we reached the no wake area. When we arrived at S & S Marine it was about 4 minutes before 5:00 and a young guy came out to assist (and collect) while we put in another 5 gallons to make sure we'd get back to Cecil.

Once we got back to Cecil Bay we decided to try fishing for a while before quiting and that's when Mona caught and released this nice Largemouth Bass on a spinnerbait. When 6:00 rolled around we decided it was getting dark enough for us to give up and head for home.

As usual: Click on the photo to make it grow!