Finsation: Day 3 - Gadsden, AL

August 2, 2014

Around 8 AM, Billy and I packed up the tent and had cereal for breakfast. We must have looked silly trying to drink the milk and cereal out of the bowls; I did not know where my spoons were. We left the campground and then headed to Honeycomb Campground where we rented a 14' metal jon boat with a 9 hp motor.

It rained lightly as we began our fishing for the day. We fished grass, hydrilla, fallen trees, and some lily pads. I got one strike, and even saw the bass hit the lure, but I didn't set the hook well and lost the fish. We moved to some submerged hydrilla and took turns paddling the boat over it and flip casting for fish. No luck.

After a quick lunch on the water, we decided to head over to the state park area of Lake Guntersville. It was a long jog across the Tennessee River to get there. Billy slept on the front bench of the boat while I manned the motor. Solely to annoy him, I aimed to hit any wake created by other boats. It worked. His nap was short lived. We fished various areas around the state park from the boat. Some of the areas looked very promising, but we had no luck. So, we drove deeper into the park.

As we motored along, we noticed that the boat was moving very slowly and seemed to be grogging along. We travelled a long way like this and I was concerned it might be the motor giving out. We were at least a 30 minute ride back to the marina. Neither of us wanted to get stuck. When we stopped for a moment, Billy started laughing. He reached to the bow of the boat and pulled up the anchor. Oops.

We continued farther into the state park; although, now we moved much faster. Then, all of a sudden, our prop was churning up a lot of dirty waster. We had driven into a shallow mud flat and had to push our boat out to deeper water. Luckily, all we had hit was mud, so we didn't destroy any foliage. Eventually, we found a place to fish. It was a nice, secluded niche of water where we saw several fish hitting the surface. We tried some plastic swim baits and worms, as well as a Zera Spook. I got one strike but didn't catch it. Otherwise, we had no luck.

We headed back with about an hour until our 8 hour time limit expired. Along the way, we decided to stop and jump in the middle of the Tennessee River. It was quite hot at 4:30 in the afternoon. We took turns trying to touch the bottom. Neither of us were successful, but we did get deep enough that the water was quite cold and dark.

As we sped back to the dock, we stopped again to take pictures with my BTHO Cancer shirt to send to Billy's dad as encouragement in his battle against cancer. Soon after we were finished and driving again, our boat died. With gas still in the tank, we soon realized that our fuel line was sucking in air at the connection with the tank. A speed boat pulled over and offered to tow us into the dock, as a foreboding storm was imminent. We were just about to tie up to their boat when we got the motor started. That was dumb and my mistake. We said we could make the last half mile now that we got the motor started. The other boat sped off. In less than a minute, our motor died again and our help was gone. Fortunately, when we opened up the gas tank and stuck the fuel line directly into the tank, we were able to get it going once more. The boat only died one more time before we reached the marina. We tied up, paid our $20 of gas, and were on the road. For a total cost of $95, the boat was a pretty good deal.

With the storm quick approaching, we decided not to camp in the area for the night. Instead, we drove toward Atlanta, where Billy was to fly out the next day. We found the Noccalula Falls campground in Gadsden, AL, where we decided to camp. The campground we were given had nowhere to set up a tent. Luckily, no one was camping next to us, so we acquired that site as well. That night Billy cooked fajitas on the stove. Again, we had cigars and beer as we watch the campfire. As I was telling a story, I hollered as part of it. The security officer who had been relentlessly driving around the campground shined his flashlight on us and we decided it was time to call it quits. It was a hot and humid night to be spent in a tent.