Boater up

Do you remember your first car?

I do — a 1986 Honda Accord with a moonroof and power windows. The radio wasn't that great, but it had a tape player, which I thought was the coolest thing next to the moonroof and power windows.

I bought that Accord after my senior year of high school. While playing a legion baseball tournament in Minnesota Lake, the moonroof went out on me and it rained that night. This was my first mechanical experience with a car, and needless to say, if it happened again, I'd be able to fix that moonroof.

Of course, I've had a few vehicles since that Accord. Starter cars are a must if you plan on respecting what you come to own later in life.

But, until recently, I've never owned a boat. I always imagined my first boat as a 14-footer with a one-armed bandit for a motor. I've operated plenty of those boats, but never had I owned one.

Now I'm the proud owner of a 1988 Lund Tyee — with a blown motor. I have no mechanical skills when it comes to boats, much like I had no mechanical skills when I bought that Accord. Yet I'm still very excited to get started.

This boat has a steering wheel, depth finder, trolling motor and a livewell — the equivalent of the moonroof and power windows from that Accord. It was my brother-in-laws starter boat before it became mine.

He upgraded to a new Lund Tyee, which is a beautiful boat by the way. I look at all the outings I had in his old boat, my new boat, and I feel fortunate to be able to start with this Lund. I also look at his ability to upgrade after paying his dues with an older boat, and I'm excited to know that I'll learn what I need to learn now, so some day I can upgrade to a newer boat, as well.

But for now, I'm learning; I'm learning about motors, I'm learning about boating regulations, and soon I'll be learning to back up a boat trailer. If it goes anything like the small trailers I backed up when I worked at U-Haul, well, I'm probably screwed.

So if you see me in the near future struggling at a boat landing, make sure you come up and laugh in my face. And then, after you gather your composure, reassure me that you were once a rookie at the boat launch, too, and that everything will get better.

Choice reading

We're in that time of summer where we get bogged down by hot weather (not so much this year), summer plans and life in general. For me, this means very little fishing. But I'm still able to get in some reading from time to time, and I came across a great bass article from Russ Bassdozer on weed fishing. Don't let the bass angle in this article throw you, because plenty of fish like the weeds.