A Karen (and a Karen Jr) Screamed At Me – We Also Caught a Couple Fish

I worked most of the day yesterday.  I had gotten one custom mold design roughed out, and I was waiting on feedback from the customer before starting work on the “pretty” details.  A buddy of mine called late in the day and said he was available if I needed help with anything or wanted to go fishing.  I had moved vehicles around in the driveway and finally parked the “new” boat in front of the shop to start work on it.  I’d needed to do that for a while so I could get to everything.  When my buddy called, I was in the process of putting away tools that had started to pile up on the front deck of the ProCraft 210.  I said he could help put tools away, and then we could go fishing.

We had at most a couple hours of daylight left when we finally headed out, but I needed the time away to destress and unwind.  I used the Jeep since I had stuff in the back of the 2500HD I didn’t really want to unload or leave out in the open at the lake.  The Jeep is adequate.  I take it easy, and it stays in reasonable gears with that load.  With its 4wd it launches and pulls out the boat with no issues.  This was the 2nd time I used the Jeep to tow that boat out, so I knew what to expect.

Launching was mostly uneventful.  There was a guy with a pontoon at the dock with a pull toy, so as nicely and as politely I could I let him know it was a no ski lake.  He said they weren’t pulling it.  Just letting the kids float on it while they hung out in a cove fishing and kicking back.  Seemed like a nice enough guy.  We lit up the big motor and headed for parts unknown.  Well, I knew were I was going more or less.  I just didn’t know where I was going to fish.  I did know fishing time was short, so I didn’t run to far before shutting it down and dropping the trolling motor.  I set my buddy up with a 4″ Club-O for the numbers bite, and I picked up a 6″ Club-O.  It wasn’t to long before I saw the line jump and I set the hook on a fish that I thought was much bigger than it turned out to be.  If I had not weighed it I would have just said close to 5, but I weighed it.

I got a couple more bumps on the 6″ Club-O, but I failed to connect.  Since I’d started out quickly with a good fish I kept stubbornly throwing it even when I probably should have switched to a topwater bait.  I will say I might switch to a heavy rod for it in the future.  I was using a medium heavy fast and that big bait was slightly overpowering the rod.  Kind of like throwing a 5in Club-O on the MLXF I like for the 4″ Club-O.  Maybe I’m just getting old and weak.  The whole time my buddy kept saying he was getting bit on the 4inch Club-O, but failing to connect.  I think he just didn’t quite have the feel for the hookset.  Even though I rig them on a MLXF rod I still feel it needs a long solid hookset.  Eventually though he managed to connect with a 2 pounder.

It’s funny to me.  His 2 pounder looks bigger than that in the photo, and my 4.7 seems to look smaller.  I guess its all in how you hold the fish.  He got a few more bites, and farmed one at the side of the boat.

I finally switched over to a Curly Buzz Frog late into the photo period, and fairly quickly a giant rolled half out of the water to grab it, but sadly I got excited and snatched the bait out of his mouth to quickly.  My mistake.  There was one more pop of a fish smacking the frog, but that was it.  The mosquitos were starting to eat me up and I decided that was it.

At the ramp there was a pontoon awkwardly angled, and not quite jack knifed on the ramp.  Well, the tow vehicle and the trailer were at largely different angles anyway.  On the way up to get the Jeep I walked over to take a look and there was a Sheriff’s deputy helping them out.  I could see the Sheriff’s boat parked along the road, so I knew they had some issues and probably had to be towed in.  That and I heard somebody say they just got the boat that day.  I also checked to make sure there was plenty of room for me to back down the three lane ramp.  There was.  They were only using about 1-1/2 of the lanes.  Well, not quite 2 with their passenger side truck door standing wide open the whole time.

After coming down the hill I started to get out to double check the space and ask them to close the passenger door, but my buddy was over by the ramp and waved me in that there was plenty of room.  I swung it around and started to back in like I have 100s of times before when “Karen” walked over to the window of the Jeep screaming at me there was just one dock, that I couldn’t wait just five minutes, etc etc, etc…  Yes, there is only one dock, and I was tied to it.  It also had nothing to do with the three lane ramp.  “Karen Jr” walked back and stared at me through the windshield and then started to join in with “Karen.”

There was a guy in the truck and as near as I could tell he never looked in my direction.  I suspect he knew they were out of line and hoped to avoid a more serious confrontation.  I hope he doesn’t have to deal with that very often.  I just politely told her it was a three lane ramp.  I also let her know I know what I am doing, and pointed out there was plenty of room as I backed down the far edge of the third lane to give them even more room.  Even with their truck door standing wide open you could have almost fit another vehicle between us.  She wandered away for a minute as I got out saying loudly for my benefit, “If he hits our boat I’ll sue him.”  As I got out of the Jeep for my buddy to back the rest of the way in while I went to get the boat she came back over screaming at me some more.  I just pointed towards the giant gap and repeated that there was plenty of room.  I used my most pleasant tone the whole time.

As I was trying to walk away to get the boat she came back screaming at me some more.  At one point she screamed that the Sheriff had just left and wanted to know if I wanted her to call him back.  Of course I said, “Please do.”  I told her I hoped she had a better rest of her evening, and said, “I realize you have had a bad night, but it was no reason to take it out on us.”  She said she hoped I had a terrible rest of my life.

The guy in the truck never said a word to me, and I never saw him look in my direction, but I did hear him say quietly to her to, “just get in.”  She didn’t.  just kept screaming with Karen Jr occasionally coming back to chime in.  Eventually I got the boat loaded and they pulled away with her still ranting.  To avoid further confrontation my partner pulled up the hill to tie down instead of up along the road like we normally would.  From there everything went uneventfully.  As we got on the road I told my partner, “I hope they make it home safely.  I would sure hate to have to stop and help them after that.”