The Anchor

Here's a little story for you all.  This isn't a real old one, nor is it exceptionally exciting, but I think its worthy of writing about because, if nothing else, its kind of entertaining.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to have been essentially given a small aluminum boat.  Its not much, but since I don't have anything, I'm elated to just have something to get me out on some of the great little lakes around town.  While it is great to have a boat, it didn't come with any of the essentials for boating.  Fortunately, my father-in-law was gracious enough to permanently lend me a small 5.5 hp motor and gas can.  It needs some work to run, but I'm confident that I'll be able to get it running sometime soon.  As I said though, there are some other things that I think are somewhat necessary to taking the boat out on the water.  One of those things, as mentioned, is an anchor. Here's just a good example of how God provides. 

A couple weeks ago, a friend and I were out on his boat fishing White Bear Lake.  Incidentally, the friend I was fishing with, Mick McJunkin, is the same friend who gave me the boat.  Anyway, it was early afternoon on one of the hottest days of the year so far and we were fishing over a sand flat that was 8-10 ft deep.  Now, if you've ever fished WBL you know that it is incredibly clear and you can easily see the bottom in 10 ft of water.  So as we drifted over this flat, I could clearly see the bottom as well as all the junk that people had littered all over the place.

I had just made a statement about how horrible it was that everyone had littered cans all over when I looked down and lo and behold, I saw this anchor sitting there on the bottom.  Some poor sap had probably found a good spot to fish and dropped anchor, only to realize that his anchor line had come untied from said anchor.  Now there are all sorts of anchors, but none of them is cheap (except maybe for the homemade type made with a rock and string, which incidentally, don't usually work all that well) and as I stood there, looking down on this anchor I thought to myself, "Man, that would be a nice anchor to have for my boat instead of buying one."  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted it, and there it was, just out of reach on the bottom.  I thought, "Maybe I could hook it with my fishing pole," knowing though that there was no way I'd be able to pull it up.  I had mentioned it to my buddy, and he just looked at me and said, "Well, why don't you go get it?"

Now, the thought to just jump in and get it had occurred to me, but I had quickly discounted it as I didn't have swim trunks on or with me.  I had thought to bring them, but had left them back in the truck.  Likewise, I had also thought about bringing a diving mask, but again, had left it behind at home.  What I hadn't really thought about until that moment though was how hot it was and how even my cargo shorts would undoubtedly would dry out in no time. 

Unfortunately, that thought process took me just enough time to pass by the anchor and it was no longer underneath us.  Now, you'd think it would be easy to find something like that again on the bottom of a crystal clear lake, but let me tell you, it ain't that easy.  It took us at least five minutes just to find that darn anchor again.  When we finally did find it though, it was less than a second and I was in the water.  I figured that my best chance to get it was to drop right on top of it and get it on the first breath, so that was my initial plan.  Amazingly, it worked out just as I had thought it out.  I dropped in the water, sank to the bottom and the first thing my hands touched was that anchor.

Now, another thing I had thought about was how heavy an anchor would be to bring up from 10 ft down.  After all, the very definition of an anchor means that its heavy and meant to sink and stay on the bottom.  Fortunately, with my incredible Hulk strength (yes I'm puffing myself up here :) ), a tore that anchor off the bottom and brought it to the surface where Mick grabbed it and put it in the boat.  I then hauled myself on-board and, realizing the heat of the day, almost wished I was back in the water again.

Anyway, there I had it, my new anchor.  A little rusty, but nonetheless, a nice anchor that would work quite nicely for my little boat.  I'll probably have to dress it up a little, but overall, it should work out perfectly.  As for the fishing that day, we did pretty good overall catching several large bass and sighting two very nice musky.  But by far the heaviest thing we pulled in, and still have to date, is that anchor.  Here's to many years with that anchor, and hoping I don't make the same mistake with the anchor line.

Finally, I still need to get my motor working, and I'll need at least one oar, but once its all working, I hope to have some of you join me for some good fishing here in the Twin Cities.  Till then...

TLaSS,
Joshua