There Is No Rest For Branson Trout!

My sense is that this morning with temperatures at record lows throughout the country, our nation's fish population is relatively safe.  Not so here in Branson, mecca for "obligatory vacations".  As I am writing, through the thermo pane windows looking out over the upper end of Taneycomo, I can see the digital thermometer reading of 7 degrees and  4 boats across my 100 yard lake panorama.   Rising swirls of heat from the much warmer lake, along with falling snow, are being blown by the strong west wind.  Within the hour as many as 10 boats have motored west against the wind and current, then drifted east with bait dragging for the unsuspecting trout.  I am not so close minded as to suggest that these fishermen have lost their minds.  I am old enough to know that often a few pursue that which most cannot imagine.
 Beyond this, I will only comment that for some of those braving the winter river, it is the playing out of their obsession with "value".  In the same manner as the airline passengers who eat whether they are hungry or not, many of those now shivering in their boats are just taking what they have prepaid with hard earned dollars, no matter how bitter.  It is a striking illustration of how Branson, America's Prepaid Vacation Capitol sustains.  To close with an unfortunate, but timely metaphor..... "once your hooked, it's so goddamn hard to get away that you might as well acquiesce to your caught status.