Stuff I Swim With

If you don't know, I grew up here in Minnesota - "The Land of 10,000 Lakes" - so I am used to swimming in lakes. I don't necessarily like it. I would prefer to look at coral heads and pretty parrot fish and other oceany stuff. One problem with the metro area lakes around Minneapolis is that the visibility is terrible. "Murky" would be a good description. Again, this is nothing new to me. Many of the lakes I grew up around (unless they are the Great Lakes or spring fed) are murky and have weeds. That murk hides stuff though. To keep from having a heart attack at every shadow that moves underneath me, I swim with my eyes closed underwater. I really hate getting startled, which is why I hate balloons as well. Aside from weeds, which gross me out, but I take like a "man," there are fish. Big fish, fast fish, bitey fish.  Like these:

The Muskie

The Northern Pike

The Crappie (pronounced: crop-ee)

The last one is considerably smaller than the others, but is the most bitey. It's not uncommon to have the baby crappies, sunfish or perch nibble not so gently on your toes, fingers or any other pink bits that might be underwater when you are standing around. (Nipples you dirty-birds - not that I have personally experienced that indignity, thank god!) Other people have been bitten by muskies and northerns as they swim. They have a lot of tiny, sharp teeth. It leaves a mark. A painful, bloody mark. But at least they aren't like sharks that will tear your arm off and then invite their friends to join the blood feast. So I have that going for me.