I was there too in '64. I had bought my own motor so I could rent my own boat. I mostly fished with my dad and brother, but not always as I liked to cast and my dad loved to soak minnows. If I fished with him and I hooked into a snag, he wouldn't move the boat to try and free my bait until he went a certain length of time without a bite. So I'd bring several rods, and once they were all hooked up, I'd sit there until he decided to move.

So with my own motor, I was free to cast and go where I wanted. The problem. It was a 6.5 hp Elgin long shaft. The gas tank was on top of the motor. A typical trip from O'Meara's (before Idle Shores) to the Lake Ten area was 50 minutes, and a tank refill of gas near the dam, and possibly only 2 shear pins (I kept shear pins taped to the motor for fast access).

But man oh man, did I catch the fish, and most days I wouldn't see another soul. Very few guys ventured past the dam back then. It was so bad, they had a rope with a loop tied in it rather then an anchor on the lodge boats. Why risk losing an anchor with thousands of logs to loop your rope over?

It was a fun time to be on the TFF as it was really wild. Some mornings or nights I would hear wolfs howling. I know there are more wolfs in Wisconsin now than in the 60's, but it goes to show how wild the area was (and still is). With only a small population of wolfs in Wisconsin, yet they were in that area.