GUSTO: Lake Pend Orielle with Brad & Erin Fowler
A Thursday in Late August
I met up with Brad and Erin Fowler around nine this morning at Bayview Marina. We quickly got our gear together and hauled everything down to GUSTO. Before long, we were pulling out of the boathouse and making the short run over to MacDonald’s Marina for fuel and ice.
With a little help from the marina staff, we eased GUSTO alongside the fuel dock and put about 40 gallons aboard. Brad and Erin wandered into the store for T-shirts, snacks, and a few other necessities while I finished getting the boat ready.
Soon we were underway again, easing out of the bay and past the no-wake buoys. Once we reached open water, I brought GUSTO up on plane, settled her in around 5,000 RPM, and pointed the bow north toward the Clark Fork Delta.
It is about a 30-minute run at 35 miles per hour, but inside GUSTO’s cabin it hardly feels like we are moving that fast. The cabin stays quiet enough to carry on a normal conversation while the bays, forested shoreline, and mountain backdrop slide past the windows.
This morning was unusually calm. The wind was little more than a whisper and there was barely a ripple on the lake. Lake Pend Oreille does not always offer up days like this, so when you get one, you appreciate it.
Once we reached the delta, we rigged up for walleye with bottom bouncers and nightcrawlers and began working an area averaging about 16 feet deep. Erin hooked a nice smallmouth early on but lost it before we could get it to the boat. Brad managed an average-sized perch, but the walleyes were nowhere to be found.
Eventually we changed tactics and moved into slightly deeper water, pulling crankbaits at a little faster pace. That produced two more smallmouth, giving us enough action to keep things interesting, even if the walleyes refused to cooperate.
By the time the clock began creeping toward one, lunch was sounding pretty good. We pulled the gear, stowed the rods, and made the short run up to East Hope Marina.
We found a table on the shaded deck overlooking the marina and settled in for lunch. Boats of every description filled the slips around us, the lake stretched out beyond them, and for a while there was nowhere else any of us needed to be. We ate, talked, and enjoyed the kind of easy conversation that comes naturally among people who have known one another for a long time.
Feeling refreshed, we climbed back aboard GUSTO and pointed her south toward Bayview.
The lake remained nearly windless for the entire 35-minute ride home. By late afternoon we were back inside the marina, where I eased GUSTO into her berth and shut down the engine.
The fishing had been modest—a perch, a couple of smallmouth, and one that got away. But somehow that didn’t seem particularly important.
It is not often in life that you discover friendships capable of enduring the years and all the changes that come with them. Spending the day with Brad and Erin reminded me that ours has done exactly that.
A good boat. A calm lake. Mountains in the distance. A few fish and a lot of conversation among old friends.
I cannot think of a better way to have spent a Thursday in late August.
