Fisherman Snags A Bit of History
Sometimes when the fishing bite is a bit slow I will sit in the boat and wonder about the history of a lake. What is on the bottom of the lake? What property several seasons ago might have fallen out of a boat only to become part of the lake’s basin of junk? What fascinating stories of misfortune or intrigue could the lake tell…if only lakes could somehow share their history with us?
Last month on a lake up by Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, one such lake gave up a bit of its history that has been part of it for over 70 years. Imagine that…going to the lake to catch perhaps a few perch and maybe a walleye or northern…but coming home instead with a classic antique boat motor. Some fishermen have all the luck!!
Indeed, when a Minneapolis area resident got a bit bored with the ice fishing action he turned his underwater camera around in search of anything to break the monotony. What came into view was a strange-looking rock that certainly deserved closer inspection. Turns out that was no rock…it was an abandoned boat motor developed by the eventual founder of Evinrude Motors, Ole Evinrude. Consider what the odds of finding such a discover must have been…simply astronomical.
This lucky angler has a piece of lake’s history that will likely forever be a mystery. How did that prototype motor make it to the bottom of a lake? Was it discarded there in some fit of disgust? Or was the motor lost in some sort of boating accident? It’s possible that nobody alive today would even know the answers to those questions…yet they beg to be asked. To learn more about this fascinating story click here.
Reading of this incident made me start to think of what unnatural things I have seen recovered from a lake. Occasionally I have snagged on onto some tangled fishing line that may or may not have had a lure attached. I also remember once hauling in part of an old black rubber boot. That’s about the extent of the trash I have lucked upon while fishing.
I did, however, have a fishing buddy up on Lake Winnibigosh once who was out with a guide snag onto a new Zebco spincast outfit. Because it was opening weekend, this rod and reel likely was in the water for several months over winter…but with just a small amount of elbow grease it looked almost like new by the end of the day. I remember this catch put a smile on my pal’s face much like a lunker walleye would have done. Again, how did this end up in the lake? Was some father trying to teach his young son the finer points of angling when the rod/reel combo went overboard? Who knows.
Sure, I have heard the stories of how some lakes have been drained only to yield up antique cars, boats and even oddball stuff that should never even have been on the lake, such as freezers or stoves. In these cases it was probably some person using the lake as a junkyard. But to me the real intrigue comes from fishing or boating related finds that makes me wonder what the true story is behind such a catch.
When we go to the lake fishing we never know for sure what kind of stories we might come home with. Sometimes they might involve fish that got away…other times they might involve fish that were landed, photographed and released. But in the back of our minds we all also know that we are not the first ones on the lake to ever go fishing, so it is always possible to make discoveries that will link us with a bygone sporting era.
© 2005 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.