"Frogwatch" wrote in message
...
A completely new experience for me, taking the Tolman in a fresh water
lake instead of my usual salt water haunts and rivers. Believe it or
not, I was actually afraid to take her through lilypads but soon
learned it was safe.
More than normal rainfall has filled local lakes previously emptied by
years of drought so Lake Iamonia near my house is high. This lake has
enormous areas of weeds and lilypads but now has some large clear deep
areas too. The lilypads have paths cut by boats for miles and miles.
Apparently fishing has not come back yet but given a year or two......
Took the kids out and they used the knee board and we all swam. It
feels totally weird to be jumping off into FRESH WATER. The
difference hits you as soon as you open your eyes and do not feel the
sting of salt water. The water actually feels refreshing; I could
learn to like this.
Found an isolated landing with a redneck/biker bar in the middle of
nowhere on the north side that felt like places I went when I was
younger. I musta looked out of place the way they looked at me but I
felt right at home.
With only a few houses on it's shores, this lake would be very dark at
night so I'd like to go out there some dark night and watch the
stars. Not yet sure how to navigate those narrow lilypad channels in
the dark but I bet the gator eyes would shine like nav beacons..

Ah-Haaaa.... finally fresh water gets some love from you salties. Nice,
isn't it?

As far as navigating, the lily pads... if you have a decent GPS that is. Lay
a track during the day getting out and back in to the dock. Simply follow
that track at night. I do that when we camp at Lake San Antonio, especially
now that the lake is only 40% full. As such, there's lots of nasties out
there, that usually aren't a problem. I keep the track feature on my GPS
active all day. That way when we go out after dinner, as long as I'm on one
of my tracks, I know I won't hit anything. It sure makes it easy to find our
campsite as well, when there's no moon. g

--Mike