On Lake Fort Scott

Several years ago, I received a fishing leson from Roscoe Campbell. He volunteered to take me to Lake Fort Scott, where we would fish for crappie. Roscoe had an old metal boat that showed the wear and tear of a real fisherman. We launched the boat, and he proceeded to drive the boat with one hand and fish with the other. By the time the lesson was over, I had managed to catch only a couple of fish while he had a dozen.

Fast forward several years: my son and I went to Stockton Lake on a Saturday morning to catch some walleyes, and, as the saying goes, "It was dèjá vu all over again," As I flashed back to my day with Roscoe.

We finally patterned the walleyes at about 17 feet, so we started working back and forth, trying to stay at that depth, using bottom bouncers and night crawlers. My son was controlling the boat and fishing out of the front of it at the same time. I had nothing to do but concentrate on fishing with two rods out of the back. In three hours he managed to land seven walleyes, a channel cat, a drum and a bass. My contribution to the fishing trip was a 3-inch bass. Then I figured out what was wrong -- my belief was that as he slowly moved the boat with the trolling motor, he was catching all the fish that were going to be in my path and, by the time the back of the boat got there, they had already been hooked or disturbed.

I have decided that the next time we go he needs to put the boat in reverse so I can have first chance because it is already evident that I have been to fishing school and I must be at the bottom of the class.