Molson Bike Tour (North): Glass-man Memorial Fish

This year's annual Milford High dude hanging/fishing weekend was in tribute to the man who allowed 14 or so slappies from Milford to take over his home each second weekend of June for the past 20 or so years. The Glass-man, Dave C, passed last year. I felt something missing when we brought the boats in after the morning session Saturday and he wasn't there to greet us at the dock with some "Did you knock 'em down out there?" comment always at the ready with the smirk/smile a standard. A good man.

The format for this year's competition no longer involved teams as the Class of '84 I believe got tired of getting their ass handed to them each year by the Class of '85. I'm still trying to grasp exactly what the format for this year's competition was as it appeared to be put together during a morning crap. For the prestigious angler of the weekend award, there was a morning and evening session on Saturday that counted. Thursday and Friday's fishing totals were excluded. Five best fish per boat. Fisherman A (we'll call him Jim D.) and B (we'll call him Tim R.) are in Fisherman C's boat (we'll call him Doke). Fisherman C catches what looked like one of the five best bass I've seen in some time. He culled three I believe while Jim and I more or less used the same lure but brought nothing to the table. With the new format, everyone in the boat gets credit for the fish poundage, regardless how many they caught. With that, our boat won the session and Fisherman B was in 1st place (tied with A and C); and $40 richer!......WITHOUT CATCHING A FISH!!! I am liking this new format at this stage of the weekend.

Fast forward to the evening session where more new rules came out of the woodwork in that people couldn't fish with anyone they fished with in the morning. Seems simple but digging deeper into this new rule, I jumped on a boat where someone tied for second was also fishing. That person was screwed as if they had the best ever 15 pound fish bag, I would win (I didn't win). Jim D. did the same, brought something to his boat totals in the form of a 16 inch smallmouth, and his boat took the evening session. The Cinderella story from Sparta takes the weekend victory!

Positives and negatives to the new format. Anyone can win. Even fishing challenged individuals like myself can jump on two boats where others are catching solid fish, not catch one myself, and get awarded angler of the weekend (and $80 extra in my wallet). Negatives are Doke had a once in a decade bag of bass and got an atta boy for his efforts. Its a thankless job in trying to make everybody happy though.

The angler of the weekend wasn't the only award up for grabs as there always has to be a big fish award. This year's big fish winner also utilized a new rule where fisherman could weigh and release any pike or other fish on the spot that might beat up the live well. A picture would need to accompany it. The suspicious meter was beeping when the big fish winner was the one who came up with the new rule and his fishing mate seemed to steer away from any comments surrounding said fish. I have it pictured below next to a pike Al caught (and should have weighed). The sheet said 4 pounds, 11 ounces but that is a lean looking 4 pounds if you ask me.

Roger's big fish* to the left: Al's non-weighed to the right

Fishing rules on the fly aside, a great weekend as always. I quadrupled my quota (one) but peaked on hitting the big ones Friday night. Campfire discussions involved creative lyrics/great music, ripping on music player playlists, building ships in a bottle while listening to Gordon Lightfoot, a review (again) of the '83 high school football season, jokes about marmalade/jam, jokes about Jamaica/WENDY (do a search on the joke), jokes, jokes, and more jokes about EVERYTHING (amazed that people can retain jokes like that) and many, many "Did So-and-So go to sleep?" references. It seems like a contest for some to make it up the latest and monitor everyone; but then I remember that I'm hanging with "Dads" so they always have the monitors going (ha). If someone is on the afternoon shift to buzztown, let them go down early.

With this group, some of whom are company leaders, it can be a chore to get your two cents of words in once a few soda pops are consumed but I was able to get Champ to beat his record of five seconds of silence as he doubled it; but lost it at ten while I attempted to tell a story. Baby steps Champ.

Thanks, as always, to Judy C. for putting up with these AARP individuals.

Trail Head