By Chris Erwin
I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. I know that families across the Tri-state look forward to this three-day weekend to do a host of family things, including visiting our love ones that have gone before us. My family has always met at Cave Run Lake to have an outdoor cookout and spend some time together. However, this year things just didn’t work out for us. Some of my family did go to the lake and some of us, myself included, decided to try to catch up on some things around the house.
By the time Monday rolled around it was just too much for me. I had to hitch up the boat and head for some water somewhere. Since my time was limited, I decided to head for Yatesville Lake. When I pulled on the ramp, it was drizzling rain and only a handful of trucks and cars were in the parking area. I concluded that most people must have already been on the water, and I might get much of the lake to myself.
Wrong! As the sun made its presence known the boaters started flocking to the water like there was a hidden treasure in every cove. 
It was my aim to catch some big bluegill and maybe a few crappie to show you just how dependable the first full moon of May is at putting the bluegill on the nest where they are very easy to catch. All was going fine. I caught three fish right off the bat.
Then I hit a few spots and realized that the bigger bluegill were nesting in a little deeper water than I expected. About that time, I leaned back to pick up a diet Pepsi when suddenly my seat pedestal broke out of the floor and my butt went crashing across the deck of the boat. My wife Linda was sitting on the passenger side of the bench seat with an umbrella over her head to create some shade while she was reading. The thunder of my big butt hitting the floor of the boat brought her to her feet, then followed a round of laughter only heard while watching Saturday Night Live!
While I wasn’t hurt, it did destroy my front seat. As a young man fishing standing up was as normal as taking a walk in the park. However, these days I am nursing a bad back and standing while fishing isn’t on the menu for me. I brushed off my pants, and my bent pride, decided to head for the house, so I could see what I needed to fix the seat.
Now, if you’re over laughing thinking about my big butt slamming into six rods, three tackle boxes and enough hooks to hold down a ticked off gorilla you have a pretty good idea of the mood I was in.
I fired up the big engine and started back to the ramp. Once I got out of the little cove I was in, I looked around. They were more boats on the water than fleas on a stray dog. I rounded the first bend hitting about 60 mph and was thinking about putting the hammer down.
Then I saw a Seadoo pulling a tube with two people in it. They rounded the next turn and the tube went wide — they had the full birth of the curve covered. I sat my boat down and started just moving a little past idle speed. In my mind, I could see this happening in a blind curve facing a bass boat, with no place to go.
I don’t want to be preaching to you, but Yatesville Lake is no place to be swinging a tub with someone you care about in it wide in the turns.
My friends until next time keep it safe and good fishing!
Chris can be reached by email at trimmer308@windstream.net
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