New River Rat
Well-known member
I just thought I'd share a couple of first time experiences from yesterday. No world record fish or anything, just another day on the river.
I got to meet up with a fishing buddy that, if I get to fish with twice a year, I've done something. Met him, drove to the river, pulling the jon. I haven't used the jon much this year and she was acting just a little like that. She cranked easy enough, but acted like the gas tank vent was closed, or there was water in the gas. While I was fooling with that, I noticed she wasn't letting water out the pee hole. It was blocked, easy fix. I had the cowling off the engine, continuously putting my hand over the carb. Not sure what was going on, but after a couple of minutes, she cleared up, I hunkered down and continued upstream through some pretty nasty shoals.
Not long after reaching our destination roughly three miles from the launch, I sighted a mature bald eagle. Then, a juvenile joined it. There were two others starting to circle into the low hanging clouds that seemed to have the right silhouette, but I couldn't positively I.D.. This is too cool, having possibly seen four eagles at once.
We caught a hand full of dinks in high and muddy water about twelve hours on the wrong side of a cold front. But at least we were fishing.
About four hours later we saw an osprey high tailing downstream. Then a VERY low flying eagle. It was joined by three or four more, obviously riding a thermal updraft. We watched a bit, looked even higher, and after about ten minutes, we had been witness to a flock of ELEVEN eagles ascending on the thermal. We continued our observations until the last one vanished like a shadow into the clouds. I honestly have never felt quite so lucky in my life. Not sure what was going on, but obviously this day wasn't about the fishing!!!
Now for the "interesting" event. The area we were in has massive amounts of ledges and bedrock berms more than eager to rip holes in aluminum, or destroy engine props or trolling motor props. There's an exit area I use that is a hard nut to crack some days. I must raise my trolling motor to the point where there is about 2/3 of the prop angled in the river. The ledges turn into a cobble chute, leading to a confluence with another river. At some point, I had squatted on the deck, low center of gravity, maneuvering at the head of the chute. I swear I never saw the ledge that immediately stopped our forward progress. Well, all but mine. I flew through the are from my perch, landing in the river on my back. Since it was a chute here, the river's might was very obvious. I had my wits about me to force my feet downstream and start looking to see if I was about to be rammed by my boat. Luckily, the jon was about seven or eight feet away, my friend had made his way to stop the trolling motor, and I swam over and grabbed a gunnel and cursed and thanked the river gods in the same breath. Yes, I had on an manually inflatable PFD and never once thought I was in enough trouble to activate the CO2 canister.
So needless to say, every day on the river is a new tale for me, and right now, this might be my most interesting in quite a while. Guys, they're not life vests if they're not worn!!!
I got to meet up with a fishing buddy that, if I get to fish with twice a year, I've done something. Met him, drove to the river, pulling the jon. I haven't used the jon much this year and she was acting just a little like that. She cranked easy enough, but acted like the gas tank vent was closed, or there was water in the gas. While I was fooling with that, I noticed she wasn't letting water out the pee hole. It was blocked, easy fix. I had the cowling off the engine, continuously putting my hand over the carb. Not sure what was going on, but after a couple of minutes, she cleared up, I hunkered down and continued upstream through some pretty nasty shoals.
Not long after reaching our destination roughly three miles from the launch, I sighted a mature bald eagle. Then, a juvenile joined it. There were two others starting to circle into the low hanging clouds that seemed to have the right silhouette, but I couldn't positively I.D.. This is too cool, having possibly seen four eagles at once.
We caught a hand full of dinks in high and muddy water about twelve hours on the wrong side of a cold front. But at least we were fishing.
About four hours later we saw an osprey high tailing downstream. Then a VERY low flying eagle. It was joined by three or four more, obviously riding a thermal updraft. We watched a bit, looked even higher, and after about ten minutes, we had been witness to a flock of ELEVEN eagles ascending on the thermal. We continued our observations until the last one vanished like a shadow into the clouds. I honestly have never felt quite so lucky in my life. Not sure what was going on, but obviously this day wasn't about the fishing!!!
Now for the "interesting" event. The area we were in has massive amounts of ledges and bedrock berms more than eager to rip holes in aluminum, or destroy engine props or trolling motor props. There's an exit area I use that is a hard nut to crack some days. I must raise my trolling motor to the point where there is about 2/3 of the prop angled in the river. The ledges turn into a cobble chute, leading to a confluence with another river. At some point, I had squatted on the deck, low center of gravity, maneuvering at the head of the chute. I swear I never saw the ledge that immediately stopped our forward progress. Well, all but mine. I flew through the are from my perch, landing in the river on my back. Since it was a chute here, the river's might was very obvious. I had my wits about me to force my feet downstream and start looking to see if I was about to be rammed by my boat. Luckily, the jon was about seven or eight feet away, my friend had made his way to stop the trolling motor, and I swam over and grabbed a gunnel and cursed and thanked the river gods in the same breath. Yes, I had on an manually inflatable PFD and never once thought I was in enough trouble to activate the CO2 canister.
So needless to say, every day on the river is a new tale for me, and right now, this might be my most interesting in quite a while. Guys, they're not life vests if they're not worn!!!
