I need some of those walk on trailer ramps. Our launch sites get slippery with slime and I no longer have the sense of balance needed to imitate the great "Wallenda's" while teetering on a 3"x3" slick steel tube. I tried those stick on rubber pads but they peel off. It might be entertaining to watch an old man cursing and windmilling the air with his arms as he splats onto the slimy ramp.....but I can say for certain it hurts like hell when you do it.
I have an old and dear friend, Buckshot Anderson, who now well into his 80's, started guiding fishermen in Northern Wisconsin when he was 14. In addition to guiding for over 60 years, he was a school teacher, a prolific author, and an outdoorsman with a wide range of experience from trapping fur to minnows, from snow shoe rabbits to North Woods bucks, and a passion for hunting waterfowl that rivals the late great Gordon MacQuarry.
Buckshot primarily guided his clients, (some families for four generations), on remote lakes, far from the scrum of water skiers and vacationing pleasure craft. Following the traditions of his mentors, he cooked a classic shore lunch. Starting a fire regardless of weather, setting a battered old grill up. He'd filet part of the morning's catch, fry up a pound of bacon for the grease and as appetizers. He'd cook a pot of strong black coffee, a pan full of raw fried potatoes, and after dusting the filets in his home made flour blend, they'd hit the grease. Can you imagine today's "guides", in their multi sponsor high tech clothing, parking their glittering fiber glass boat on a shoreline and performing such a mundane and menial task?
Buckshot guided from 16" cedar strip boats, narrow and sleek, and easily rowed. The senior client, (if there were two), ran the small outboard, when I knew him always an Evinrude or Johnson, as Buckshot has little use for Mercuries. Buckshot sits in the front seat of the boat, manning a pair of 8 foot oars with the leather sleeves and ring oar locks. As I was out on the water on the Mississippi River last week I realized that Buckshot could not guide anymore because today's guide clients would be too big for his small boat. Those boats were built for men of a much smaller physique than today's more sedentary Americans.
Anyway, Buckshot used many rustic and unimproved "landings" to access these more secluded lakes and absolutely needed some improvised planks to be able to walk out on the boat trailer both to unload and load his boat. Under his mentorship, I have been allow to get just a smidgeon of a taste of his techniques and tactics that landed Buckshot in the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wisconsin.
Once again for the season Opener on May 1st, I will join Buckshot and a select group of friends for an outing on a far Northern WI lake for walleye and northern pike. Our days have shortened to 8 to Noon outings, and the number of anglers and boats has dwindled. I am almost afraid to see the minimal attendance this Spring. Deaths and disabilities have shrunk our ranks. We will return to Buckshot's home in the woods of Vilas County and clean the morning's catch, and that evening for Supper we have a feast with several non angler or former angler friends and relatives in attendance. There on his back deck overlooking Lost Creek, we will enjoy some relaxing adult beverages, and get a bunch of fish deep frying along with french fries and onion rings.
I don't own a cedar strip boat, but I do have a battered old Grumman Sport Boat that used to do stealth duty for some Wisconsin DNR Wardens. It rows like a dream although Buckshot found the Sport Boats to be too flighty in the wind and not suitable for rough water. The old cedar strip boats with their gentle curves, long keels, wine glass transoms, were more stable and yet responded well to the oars. The trailer for the Grumman had walkout hard wood boards that served for years but were well deteriorated. I had a pair of galvanized 4 ft. x 10" wide perforated ramps that if they were not designed for a boat trailer should have been. A couple of hours in my friend's shop created new brackets and we mounted them.
I have cobbled together some old swivel seats that raise my butt up high enough so my back doesn't wear out in an hour of sitting. I also have modified risers for the oar locks to allow the use of 8 ft. oars.
A couple of years ago Buckshot and I were unloading at a public ramp on a stretch of the Upper Wisconsin River. As we were about to putter off with a little 6 hp Evinrude Fisherman idling in a small cloud of blue exhaust, a couple of young anglers pulled up with their nice new boat and actually pointed and laughed at us. My other friend Tom got all indignant and told the kids that little boat caught more fish than they were likely to see in their life time.
So there, enjoy my morning's mental ramblings. In your mind's eye and ear, you should hear loons calling and see mist rising rising off the water. Little wavelets slapping against the hull and the rattle of a chain stringer over the gunnel.
