If Only Money Bought a Few More Bites

They say money doesn’t buy happiness. Apparently it doesn’t buy fish either.

I own a fishing boat with all the bells and whistles. It has three motors, sonar, and GPS. There are a dozen rods in the on-board locker, drawers filled with every lure on the market, and a live-well big enough to hold me. There’s even a retractable yard stick to measure all those fish I don’t catch.

Before I could afford such a craft, however, I fished out of more modest boats and caught more fish. My most successful trip to Fort Peck Lake was my first, fishing out of a pontoon boat, chasing the rumor of a bite on a...