The Overnighter

That first overnight fishing trip a young boy takes with his Dad makes a big impression in his memory especially when it ends with the chase of the century. Here’s my story.

The Overnighter

 

When I was 9 years old, my Dad decided to take me on an overnight camping trip to Lake McClellan. We took a tent , our bed rolls, the Coleman stove, a frying pan, the lantern, some groceries, an ice box, and our fishing gear. This was very exciting trip  for me because my sister didn’t get to go with us. It was a man thing. We got there just in time to set up our camp and build a fire before dark. We were right on the lake, so we put some catfish bait on our fishing hooks and started fishing for those whiskered night feeders. We caught 4 or 5 nice catfish and I was getting pretty tired so I helped my Dad clean them and we put them on ice.  I went to the tent and went to bed. I could hear the coyotes howling in the distance which was a little scary, but I knew my Dad was right there so it was OK.

 

My first over night camping trip to go fishing at Lake McClellan with my Dad is extremely exciting. I can’t wait to get there.

 

 

Let’s get these fish cleaned Billy and the hit the sack, we’ve got a long day tomorrow.

 

 

We got up at daylight and dad got out the Coleman and started a pound of bacon cooking in a frying pan. He cooked the bacon to the point it was more than crisp. It was plumb black because that’s the way he said he liked it. Then he dropped five eggs in the hot grease and cooked them until they were all brown on the edges and super hard cooked. He still had a quarter inch of bacon grease in the pan, so next he dropped four pieces of bread in the bacon grease and cooked them until they were a dark brown color. We ate that breakfast and it was very good. We ate everything he cooked and It seemed like a breakfast fit for a king. I wondered why my Mom never cooked like this. After we cleaned up the dishes, we put some lazy ike lures on our fishing poles and started casting for bass. We had no luck that morning.

 

 

Well Billy, I’ll just flip these eggs over, and cook them until their good and done. The toast is next.

 

 

I was feeling kind of like a real He Man out here in the wilderness with my Dad. I don’t remember what I said, but it must of been smart ass because my Dad got that look in his eye like he got right before he busted my butt so I took off running,  He was right on my tail and I could tell he was getting madder with each step I ran. He chased me for at least fifteen minutes over those sand dunes and I was getting tired, so I thought …”I’m dead.”,, and he finally caught me. He just held on to my arm and laid on the ground heaving. He was too tired to bust me after he caught me. After a couple of minutes, we both just started laughing out loud and I knew then I had survived this time without a busting. When we recovered, my Dad gave me one of those talks that started like this…”If you ever run from me again I will……”. We broke camp and headed for home.

 

 

You should have never tried to out run me Billy, that was a stupid thing to do.

 

 

 

We talked about what a good time we had on the way home.

 

 

Thanks for reading The Overnighter,

Billy