When he says, "Boys, we have a problem," it's time to worry

My favorite fishing partner is Don Hettrick (AKA Don H), and he can get into some of the darnest and most hilarious predicaments or hair-raising situations in the blink of an eye.

Things that happen to him are not of the ordinary run of the mill type and when they do happen, it often leaves others such as Norm Budden, Bob "Slick" McCulloch and I, round-eyed and totally awed.

As just one example:

On a fishing trip at Walker Lake, several years ago, Don H and Slick were trolling in Don's boat, right alongside of Norm and I in another boat.

We all decided to move to a new location and Don H yanked on the rope of his motor's trolling plate to pull the plate up.

When he yanked, the rope broke (setting off an amazing string of wild and related events), and Don H said, "Boys, we have a problem. I need to raise that trolling plate."

Improvising, he used his long-handled aluminum fish net to pull up the trolling plate.

When he was done lifting the plate, he dropped the net behind him without looking to see where it landed.

The handle of the fish net landed on the side of his aluminum boat and also across both poles of his 12-volt battery. This immediately resulted in an electrical short circuit.

This resulted in the boat's electrical wiring system beginning to smoke and burn.

Seeing his wires smoking and burning, Don H tried to put out the fire, by snuffing it with his gloved hands.

The gloves were made of some kind of plastic material, which began to melt, and then, the melting gloves began to burn the fingers and palms of both of his hands.

All of this was accompanied with lots of loud shouting and nasty words from Don H.

Throughout all of this commotion, Slick was sitting in the front of their boat, completely dazzled by what he was seeing.

Norm and I were beginning to wonder if we would have to rescue those two poor souls from a burning boat.

Fortunately for everyone, Slick grabbed the fishing net handle off the battery, breaking the short circuit, and the scorched wires stopped smoking and burning.

Whew, peace and quiet finally returned to Walker Lake, except for a broken rope, scorched wires, melted gloves and slightly burnt fingers and palms on Don H's hands.

Now, let's fast forward to the present time:

About a week ago, Norm Budden, Don H and I went fishing at Lahontan Reservoir.

During that morning, Norm and I experienced several "Boys, we have a problem."

The first was when we had almost reached the reservoir and Don H said "Boys, we have a problem."

Norm immediately asked, "Oh Oh, what's wrong?"

Don H replied, "I forgot to tell you guys, that yesterday, I was mounting a ladder on the side of the boat to make it easier to get in and out. I ran out of time before I got done, and there are two holes drilled in the hull of the boat."

I excitedly exclaimed, "Holy Moly, are you're telling us that we are going fishing in a boat with two holes in its hull?"

Don H replied, "Aw, don't worry, my bilge pump will take care of the water coming into the boat."

An alarmed Norm said, "Just be sure not to get too far from shore in case the pump fails, because I don't want to have to swim very far."

Fortunately for the three of us, everything worked AOK and the boat did not sink.

Then, later that morning, when Don H was making one of his many infamous, out-of-control turns, Norm's lure got snagged on the bottom.

As Don H backed up, so Norm could free his lure from the snag, the boat was turning in the wrong direction, and Norm shouted, "Don, turn right, turn right, you're going to go across my line."

He continued to turn, and Norm again shouted, "Turn right, turn right."

As we went across his line, Norm yelled, "Watch out, my line is going under the boat."

Then, the trolling motor stopped running and Don H said, "Boys, we have a problem. Norm has wrapped his line around the prop of my motor."

Please note that according to Don H's remark, Norm's line caused the problem, not the maneuvering of the boat.

That ended our fishing, and we returned to the boat ramp using the inboard-outboard motor to get us there.

Once the boat was on its trailer and out of the water, Norm and I worked on cutting a huge amount of his fishing line off the prop. Needless to say, the $20 lure he had been trolling was now, somewhere, on the bottom of the reservoir.

Just as we finished, Don H said, "Boys, we have a problem. I've lost my wallet."

He was frantically going through the boat, looking for his wallet, and he looked like a wild hog digging for acorns. Things were flying everywhere.

We joined in the hunt, and his wallet was finally found, exactly where he had put it: On a shelf on the side of the boat.

Whew, peace and quiet finally returned to Lahontan Reservoir.

On the drive home, Don H loudly sighed and said to us, "I guess that we will probably read about all this in the newspaper on Thursday."

I replied, "Naw, I wouldn't do that to my favorite fishing partner. No one will ever know except the three of us. It will be our very own secret. Trust me."

• Bet Your Favorite Pigeon

Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you how we did, fishing at Lahontan, that day.

If he grins and replies, "They caught and released several hundred, small, White Bass on many different types of lures," he might have been watching us through his binoculars.

• Don Quilici is the Outdoors editor for the Nevada Appeal