Skunked Again
Well, I’m sure by now, you’ve guessed that my last trip did not go as expected. My river-of-choice for the day was overloaded with driftboats (likely due to internet report chasing). My guess is probably 40+ boats in a four mile stretch. So, that left us fishing a backup river. This river is a gem of the NW but small and can easily have too many boats on it. This day, we were one of just a few boats to fish it because the water was low and clear and late in the season.
We were running late because of the change in rivers and because my slacker fishing partner (Tony) was a little behind the curve (Just kidding Tony) and because the boat pilot (me) hates getting up before 5 am. I was driving a little fast as we were headed up the little farm road to the gravel beach were we would be launching and as I rounded the corner near the turn off, I went wide and hit a pothole , no, it was more of a gaping sinkhole that nearly tore the tires off of my rig and send the boat and trailer into the air. To give you an idea of the size of the pothole, my 12 lb lead box bounced up into the air and landed on the seat mounting knob, breaking it. All because of my Genius driving skills. After I replaced the fillings that were knocked out of my teeth by the massive jolt, we turned around (we missed the turn about this time) and headed down to the launch. After some “minor” re-rigging of the boat (putting everything back into place that had flown around the boat. So, besides getting some water into my boots, the launch went went smoothly and down the river we went. The weather was perfect. Sunny and sweatshirt only warm. The water conditions weren’t all that great. Low and gin clear is not what we were hoping for… I fish better in high and a little on the silty side. It’s one of my specialties. Still, we were there and fishing, so it was time to give it our best shot. Unfortunately, all we would have to show for the day was one dark chum hen, which we released, of course. Still, the weather was perfect and we had a great time. No complaints here.