Hymn for Oneida Lake
By Don Barone
Don BaroneOneida Lake sits between the Elite anglers and glory.The lake has eyes.
Scouts it sends out to see, who's next.
The lake looks for you, in the fog.
It creeps in and searches the anglers out.
It covers their boats, their campfire grills, their trucks.
It seeps through the screens and into the motorhomes, 5th wheels, and truck campers.
Oneida Lake has come for those who have come for it.
Its fingers the dampness, its muscle, the rain. The whisper in the drops, if you don't conquer me, I will conquer you.
Water is from where we came, and it dares us to come back. We live on tiny islands surrounded by seas of challenge. A new tease rides on every tide.
Hope floats in tiny boats.
It has all come down to this.
I know it.
The anglers know it.
Oneida Lake knows it.
As I walked my wife's dog Riley early this morning, we stood on the edge of the lake and watched the water come for the men.
It rose out of the middle of the lake and silently drifted across the calm to the shore. My ankles felt it first as it crept by me, covered the grass, swirled around trees and picnic tables, and rushed toward the anglers as they slept.
I felt the probing on my shin, my calf, and finally the boney part of my knee. I watched as it crossed the pavement, climbed the walls supposed to protect and then went inside.
It's the moisture that takes our measurement, it knows what we are made of, for we are made of it.
And the lake wants to know if these guys have what it takes.
Today is the last day of practice, a half day or so where the pros take to the water to try and find the secrets within.
Oneida Lake already knows the secret within them.
The fog has told it.
The mist found it.
And as the sun rose, and the lake scurried back, it carried back with it the dreams of 99 men.
Between the anglers and glory, sits a lake.
And right now, only the lake is calm.
— db
Don Barone is an award-winning outdoors writer and a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and is also a member of the Outdoor Writers Guild of the U.K. You can reach db at www.donbaroneoutdoors.com
 |
Click here to JOIN BASS! |
MORE HEADLINES
