I Was Thinking... Patience of a Pelican

If you live in the land of 10,000 lakes, you’ve probably gone fishing occasionally. Some 20+ years ago we bought a place in a campground near a lake and so our lake time increased dramatically. So did the amount of fishing gear I obtained over those same years. While shiny spoons, Rapalas, jigs, lures, and plastic worms offered no guarantee of catching fish, they were very efficient in catching suckers better known as fishermen.
While I’m equipped with plenty of rods, reels, lures and even a boat, my success ratio as a fisherman is quite low. If fishing was baseball, I’d still be in the minor leagues. But that doesn’t necessarily diminish my enjoyment of fishing. Being on a beautiful Minnesota lake with a fishing buddy early in the morning provides an atmosphere that is hard to beat. But catching some fish adds to the enjoyment.
This year, with our very unusual weather, fishing has been less productive than in previous years. At our campground, most of the docks floated away with the early rains and boats were pulled up on shore. But recently it looked like fishing was improving. That is of course true if you were a pelican.
Over the years, we have often had pelicans spend time on our lake. But when we pulled in a couple of weeks ago, the lake was dotted from shore to shore with those large white birds with sharp long beaks. Lake Elysian runs from Elysian to Janesville and is about five miles long. It seemed like pelicans had populated the whole lake. Obviously, they were drawn here for a reason, so I went down to the dock to get in on the action.
While waiting for a bite, I was able to get a better look at these busy birds. It may appear that they just float along effortlessly, but below the surface they are busy paddling hectically to maneuver where they want to go. If a particular location isn’t suitable, in a couple flaps of their wings they’re airborne. They can gain great heights or just skim over the top of the water. When they find their next spot, they quickly ski to a stop and start fishing again.
During the hour I attempted to cash in on what I thought would be an abundance of fish, I got just one bite. How the pelicans faired was hard to determine. Occasionally I would notice four or five birds circling around the same small patch of water and their heads quickly began dipping down. This activity would quickly draw an abundance of more birds to the same spot. Obviously, they are very observant.
Since my bobber wasn’t active, I had lots of time to observe individual pelicans. Some had a big knot on their beak and others didn’t. As a group, they tend to all look alike but when they swim close, you realize each one is unique. Occasionally their head would dip into the water and after coming up, they would tilt their head back and try to swallow whatever they had captured in the pouch. Their eyes must have been much better than mine because I never saw anything float by that I was tempted to net. Maybe having an eye on each side of your head is an advantage.
With little luck, I became impatient and was ready to give up after less than an hour. But the pelicans just kept swimming and flying from place to place. They were there before I started and would continue long after I’d called it quits. My patience was tempered by how successful I was. If I don’t do well, I can move onto something else that provides me with more immediate satisfaction. If the fish weren’t biting, I could still stop for a burger and beer. However, if a pelican gives up too early, he doesn’t eat.
But as with most adventures on a lake, you can always come away with some type of positive experience. I didn’t have the work of cleaning any fish and was able to get a closer look at these somewhat awkward yet majestic birds that were much more patient fishermen than I was.
 
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