Impromptu family reunion comes to KY Lake

THE MOORS — “Hey Dad, are you at Kentucky Lake?” The call was from my daughter Stacy who lives in Nashville with her husband, Rudy, and their three kids. When I confirmed my earthly location, Stacy explained that their plans to make a sweep through the Buckeye State to visit friends and family had hit several snags. When the family heard I was at Kentucky Lake with Mary and Chance the Wonder Dog, the vote was unanimous to visit us.

It makes no difference if she is seeking an accommodation on Mars or New York City, Stacy can find a place to stay. This time she found a campground at the Kentucky Lake Dam Marina for $20 a night. Two tents and a hammock made up their living conditions, but Stace and I have a long history of tenting on fishing trips from Ardoch, Ontario to Lake Snowden near Athens, Ohio.

Rudy, Stace, Casey, Cody, and Carly found us as we were coming in for a lunch that I never saw. Mary hopped from the boat to the dock and Stace and my grandson Cody came aboard. An hour of fishing produced no fish, but the second shift in the Skeeter with Rudy and both boys had bass being caught on Ned rigs in the P,B,& J color.

My role was snagged line retriever as I relaxed behind the steering wheel until an errant cast failed to make a splash. One particular cast had sent a Ned rig far into shoreline shrubbery that took quite a bit of limb  wrestling to free it.

“Look at that snake!” I stared at the water looking for the little serpent. We had seen several small snakes that week swimming peacefully in the shallow water.

“No, Papaw, it’s in that bush where the Ned rig was snagged,” explained Cody. I finally saw a much beefier snake that looked to be around 48 inches long if uncoiled. I feigned bravery in the face of snakebite, but that was the last Ned rig I saved.

Casey and his father, Rudy, both landed bass, but Cody returned to the dock without landing a fish. However, he asked if he could use one of my rods and fish from the boat slip.

About the time I made it to Cabin 2, the photo of Cody holding a three pound smallmouth bass came across my phone. He had caught the best fish of the week throwing a Ned rig in water no more than three feet deep. Cody’s catch came in handy for me a couple days later.

Thursday night was a campfire affair at their campsite complete with marshmallows, hot dogs, and a bucket of the Colonel’s finest bird. Friday night had us putting together a picnic at our place where the highlight of the affair was the bald eagle that soared over our cabin. Everybody but me ran through the wooded grounds following the eagle’s flight. I had been watching it for five minutes before I told everyone the bird gliding over us was an eagle and not one of the many buzzards that had been circling the area.

I was just as excited as the kids, but running across broken ground with my eyes in the skies is an exercise in potential surgery. And my orthopedic surgeon just retired.