Boy did I ever pick a bad time to drive 3000 miles pulling my boat on a fishing trip in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit! I left on August 21 for a two week trip to northern Wisconsin with a swing through Iowa coming home, and arrived home this past Friday morning just after midnight. From news reports last Thursday I was worried about getting enough gas to get home but had no problems.
The 1200 miles from Griffin to Rhinelander, Wisconsin was uneventful, with gas prices running a little less in Tennessee than here and slightly higher in Illinois and Wisconsin. I arrived late Monday afternoon and was delighted to get up Tuesday morning and walk out into 45 degrees of cool, dry air. It felt wonderful.
The fishing was great and we even caught a few. The first day I landed two smallmouth about three pounds each and netted a 36 inch muskie for my partner. We also had a bunch of northern pike and some bass shorter than the 14 inch minimum size limit. The next day I caught a smallmouth and a largemouth over the size limit and a bunch of smaller fish. That day I netted a 35 inch muskie for a different partner.
I had gone up to fish a bass tournament we hold each fall. Called the North Woods Classic, it is open to everyone who visits the bass fishing newsgroup during the year. Folks from all over the eastern US come to it, and this year I was the one traveling the most miles to get there.
The two day tournament was very disappointing. I landed only one keeper and came in 5th place with a 2.5 pound largemouth, the only largemouth weighed in. The winner had six keepers in two days but second place was only three keeper bass.
Last Sunday I left Rhinelander and drove to Des Moines, Iowa to visit a friend there. I was pleasantly surprised to find ethanol gas in Iowa for $2.45 a gallon, the cheapest price so far on the trip.
The first day in Iowa we fished a 900 acre lake and caught 50 or 60 bass each. Unfortunately, only three of them were over 12 inches long! The shoreline grass was full of little bass and they hit on almost every cast. Fun, but we wanted bigger fish.
The next day we fished a 300 acre lake and I quickly caught a 4 pound bass and three more over the 15 inch size limit there. Then we started catching crappie on almost every cast with a small jig, landing dozens but they we all small. My final day on the water there we fished another 900 acre lake and caught 14 bass, the biggest one my friend caught weighing 4.5 pounds.
That was Wednesday morning and I was hearing rumors about gas shortages. By the time we got back to town that afternoon gas had gone from $2.45 to $2.89 for ethanol so I filled up. Driving 1000 miles in 17 hours on Thursday I never had a problem getting gas, and the cheapest I found was near Dalton, Georgia at $3.09. At least I got home.
I had great fun fishing with friends I see only a couple of times a year even if we did not catch huge numbers of fish. I am already planning next year’s trip.