Alfredo Villarreal
For those of you out there who love to fish and have a boat, you have more than likely been harassed at a boat launch on more than one occasion. Maybe you’re with the family or maybe it’s just a day to yourself out on the lake all alone, just you and the fish. Either way the sooner you get in the water the better because the fish are not going to wait. You drive up to the lake, back up the trailer and get out so you can remove the rear straps that always seem to give you a hard time, when you see someone walking up to you out of the corner of your eye. You look up and sure enough it’s them again. They can range in age from high school kids to elderly people who should probably be at home watching murder she wrote. He or she strolls up to you sporting that big smile, a clip board with a list of questions, and of courses another one of those ugly stickers for your trailer that you already have six of. It seems that no matter when or where you decide to go fishing they always find you. All you want to do is get in the water and start fishing but no, you have to talk to these people again, they have to look at your trailer again, and you get another sticker for the ever growing collection. The whole conversation is just a blur, you already have the questions memorized and your answers pre-determined because you’ve done this about a thousand times. You know your trailer is free of weeds, there’s nothing in the live well, I’ve fished on this and that lake the past couple week and yes I’ve cleaned my boat since then, oh and I’m using bait I bought from the local bait shop, you could probably make this a song if you tired. Then is over, they got their questions answered and you can get back to doing what you planned on doing. Cruising wide open to your favorite spot that never seems to yield any fish, you can’t help but think that the new spinner you just spent $8 on is going to land the big one. You put the trolly motor down and make those first couple casts. Despite having to talk to people at the boat launch, this day is looking like it’s going to be a good one. Suddenly there’s a tug on the line, you set the hook and sure enough your new spinner is stuck in a bed of Eurasian Milfoil. Pulling the rod every which way to get your spinner out you hear a snap. You just lost $8 to the lake. You know, maybe those people aren’t so bad after all. If only they could have been out here a few years earlier this lake could be milfoil free and I wouldn’t be cursing at a bed of weeds that shouldn’t be here in the first place. Next time I go out on the lake I think I’ll be a little more compliant and understanding with that 80 year old grandmother who is missing her favorite morning soap opera just to remind me to check my trailer for weeds.
4 comments:
The situation you described does sound like it could be annoying but I agree that the volunteers are there with the best intentions of the lake in mind. Even though things like this may be annoying to some after multiple times of going through the same questions I think that the message is getting across to people. Even if the answers to the questions are already predetermined in your mind you have probably still done the actions that the volunteers are there to encourage. So although it may be annoying to some it is still accomplishing the goal.
Those people that put their time in going to all of the boat landings and asking those questions and getting people to clean off their trailers you have to give them a lot of credit. They are only just trying to help out the lakes and stop the spread of invasive species. If they don't do those things just think of how bad some of the lakes would be if there wasn't people to do that job. I agree with you all the way that those people aren't so bad and deserve a lot of credit talking to hundreds of people at boat landings.
I do believe that the people that put the time into going to all of the boat landings to help stop the spread of aquatic invasive species deserve a lot of credit. Yes people do get mad I am sure when they are asked all of those questions time and time again, but they are just doing their job and trying to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. Just think what the lakes would be like if they weren’t there doing their job stopping the spread of aquatic invasive. I do agree with you that they aren’t bad people when you do see some invasive species in the lake already.
Nice writing style, Alfredo! I am grateful for the volunteers. I see them out in Wyo where they stop people with trailers before the Teton lakes.
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