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Gar Fish

We spend most weekends in what the locals call “The Buffalo City Cove,” a Corp of Engineers-made inlet on the Mississippi River just north of Buffalo City, WI, and just south of the Alma, WI Lock and Dam.

 

On a typical day, we pull up to the beach and unload our  small step ladder, a couple of beach chairs, a blanket, one or two beach umbrellas, towels, a bag of snacks and a cooler full of drinks. First the beach chairs get opened up and placed in a flat spot, and then the umbrellas go up to see where the shade is. A blanket is laid out behind the beach chairs and the cooler is tucked under the front of boat to keep it out of the sun.

After an hour or so of mingling among our group of boater friends, we pull out our rafts and float out in the middle of The Cove behind all the boats. Sometimes we paddle across to the other side and the kids run up the hill and back down and splash into the water. Tired of floating, we haul our rafts back to the beach to dry off and plop back into our beach chairs.

The kids pull out their sand pails and shovels, but quickly grow tired of trying to make sand castles in the sand. Instead they used their buckets like shovels to scoop the sand away from the edge of the water, creating a small inlet to catch minnows.

Last weekend, my friend saw a baby Gar fish swimming around her boat and she scooped it into a bucket. My daughter had a good time watching the fish, which looks like a tiny crocodile, swimming around in its bucket. She named it Gary. When another boater friend motored up to the beach, however, the wake from his boat splashed over the small bucket holding Gary, washing him back into the river. 

Lunch usually consists of a cold sandwich and some fruit and chips. Sometimes someone will pass around something to share with the group, like corn salsa and chips, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, beef sticks, or watermelon. Sometimes we fire up our little grill, which uses a small propane tank, to cook up some hotdogs or some pre-cooked brats (although we’ve also used it to make fajitas). 

After lunch it’s time to reapply sunscreen, and sometimes pull on a shirt  and a pair of shorts or a swim suit cover up (we usually hang out in our swim suits all day). 

Around 5 p.m. we start to pack up: folding up the towels, taking down the umbrellas and packing up the snacks, and loading it all back into the boat. Everything safely stowed and the kids in the boat with their lifejackets on, we ask someone to rinse off our steps and hand them up, and then give us a little shove away from the beach. 

We motor past the remaining boaters and out of The Cove, careful not to create a wake. 

Roaring out onto the main channel, we hold on tight as the boat jumps up out of the water and hits plane. After a quick ride back to the dock in Buffalo City, dodging any large wakes

The Buffalo City Cove

and making sure we stay between the green and red buoys, the kids and I hold onto the boat while my husband runs up to the parking lot to get the truck. He backs the trailer down, jumps out, and I throw him the rope. He pulls the boat up and hooks it the trailer and jumps back into the truck. Once the boat is pulled out of the river, my husband jumps back out, pulls the plug on the boat to let the water out, and straps it down while I use a towel to wipe off the bits of plants and other debris that have stuck to the sides and bottom of the boat. 

 

On the way home, we talk about what a fun day we had and how we hope the weather cooperates so that we can do it again the next weekend.

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