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Their view: Preparing for the worst: An expert’s point of view

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PIAA remains in holding pattern regarding basketball and swimming state championships

PLAINS TWP. &mdash; At times like this, don&rsquo;t you just want to put a sign on your door that says, &ldquo;Gone Fishing.&rdquo;
				Boy, I sure do.
				Unable to do that right now, I decided to jump in the time machine and travel back to those days when things were much simpler and pandemics were not even thought of in our neighborhoods.
				Across the street lived Alex &ldquo;Ecky&rdquo; Kraynack and his wife, Mary, or &ldquo;Mrs. K&rdquo; as we called her. Ecky was a retired teacher and letter carrier and he enjoyed fishing.
				Every June, Ecky and Jack Ziomek and a bunch of guys would pack their cars and head to Canada for a week of fishing. They would come back with coolers filled with ice and, yes, fish. When Mrs. K. told us Ecky was on his way home, we would gather at the corner of Reynolds and Second streets to wait.
				When Ecky puled up, he would lift a cooler or two and open it up to reveal the biggest fish we had ever seen &mdash; walleye, lake trout, northern pike. We never got tired of being Ecky&rsquo;s welcoming committee.
				Ecky would also fish the local lakes &mdash; Harveys, Lake Silkworth and North Lake were his favorites. One day, Ecky asked me if I waned to learn to fish. I jumped at the chance. My dad, who did not like to fish, took me to Onderko&rsquo;s at the corner of Davenport Street and West Shawnee Avenue and he bought me a fishing pole and a spinning reel &mdash; a Mitchell 300.
				When opening day for trout arrived, Ecky took me to Lake Silkworth to fish for rainbows. And we caught them. It was fun to reel them in as other anglers watched. Just a few docks down, a group would catch a few fish, clean them right there and fry them up along the shoreline. They sometimes offered us a taste &mdash; delicious.
				One day, I was having a lot of difficulty with my open-faced reel, getting several bird&rsquo;s nests &mdash; when the line flies off the spool and creates a mess. After about the third or fourth bird&rsquo;s nest, Ecky told me to cut the line and hand him the reel. Ecky then heaved the Mitchell 300 into the lake.
				As I stood there dumbfounded, Ecky handed me a Johnson&rsquo;s closed-faced reel. There were no more bird&rsquo;s nests from that point forward.
				On a trip to Harveys Lake, we had permission to fish off of a dock. There were other guys fishing on docks on both sides of us. One of the fishermen was using an artificial lure. When he made a high and long cast, a duck snatched the lure right out of the air.
				Have you ever heard a duck scream? It was very loud, piercing the calm air on an early Saturday morning. I&rsquo;m sure several residents were awakened.
				Anyway, the guy managed to land the duck on the dock. He reeled in all the line he could, but it was certain that the duck was not going to allow the man to get close enough to remove the lure. So he cut the line, the duck flew off, surely discarding the lure at some point.
				That reminds me of the time a loon grabbed my live bait while fishing in Canada. The bird was swimming underwater and saw the bait and snatched it. The loon came out of the water, squawking and flapping its wings. Luckily, he spit the bait out.
				Stay safe and keep an eye on your bait.

Coping with Corona: Recalling some great fish stories