Fishing takes a back seat..

Unfortunately, fishing has not been my main priority lately. I've beens struggling with school this block. I have found time in between work, exercising and school to get some fishing in. I did go to a lake over the weekend. Lake Wheeler. I went with Tommy and some of his friends from Greeneville. It was a beautiful day and I had high expectations of the fishing. We rented a John boat. I always wondered why they were called John Boats, is it because you have to row them? Does the person rowing mean they are the John? I have no idea, I'll google it later.

Anyways... We headed out to other the side of the lake. After the first few rows the oar holder on my side broke. There was a cheap piece of metal holding the oar ring to the boat. That snapped. I tried to rig it so it would work but nothing seemed to last long enough for it to not break again. The set up for rowing was really bad, me and the guy I was fishing with Kenton, just ended up paddling the boat like a canoe. I started to think of the term John back in History, that was the name of the clients of prostitutes. I was starting to feel maybe it's called a John boat because if you get one you're screwed.

We made it to the other side of the lake and fished here and there. I was able to catch some bluegill on poppers but what I really wanted was a bass. Tommy and his friend Doubtin had some luck with night crawlers. I wasn't going to lower myself to use bait that day. I went as far as using my spinning rod with some rubber worms and stick baits but that was it. Kenton had a rough time too. The fish just weren't cooperating. It was a lot cooler than it had been the last few days but the fish seemed to be in deep water. We pretty much scoured the lake with different tactics. No fish were to be found.

The paddle back was a hell I would never want to relive again. It seemed to take four hours to get back to shore. I started to feel like these boats were rented by the hour because it takes an hour to get back to the boat launch from anywhere in the lake with these rowing peices of junk. After several rests and last ditch efforts to cast a few times and hope for a fish, we made it to shore. It was a fun day and nice to be on the lake but next time, I'll invest in one of those $150 Walmart trolling motors.

Click here for the history of the Jon Boat.