LESSONS LEARNED

This fishing story is embarrassing enough I probably wouldn’t tell it except for the fact that maybe others can learn from my mistakes and not get into the same situation.  I need to preface this with the fact that the older I get the more prone I am to not make the best judgements when I am really tired.   Yesterday was my third long day of fishing while helping my Grandson move in the evenings.  I woke up before the alarm, hooked up the boat, got ice and bait and arrived at the dock an hour early for a scheduled 6 AM departure.  

The guests were four experienced fishermen participating in a tournament.  The first wade only produced 2 or 3 trout around 15 inches so we cut it short and moved.  At the second location there was lots of bait and after a few steps we started getting trout.  The catching was good enough that we went back and waded the same area a second time.  To weigh in a full stringer for the tournament we had to have five trout and two redfish.  We kept 18 trout because some of the men lived out of town and wanted fish to eat. The rest of the trout were released. Since we still needed two redfish we moved to a shoreline where I have found good redfish in years past.  The fish were tight against the shore so only one or two people could fish in an area. After the first wade yielded 4 redfish I left two waders behind and spread the others out farther down the shore.  Then I used the troll motor to move the boat to the end of the shoreline. We had agreed they would all fish 30 minutes more then I would pick them up. That would leave 15 minutes to get to the dock, 30 minutes to sort out the seven biggest fish, put them on a stringer and 15 more minutes to get to the weigh in. 

Since the others were taking up the redfish shoreline I decided I would jump out of the boat, fish the deeper point and just maybe catch a trout big enough to upgrade the stringer. Here’s where I my old-timer’s disease kicked in.  All day I had carried the power pole and trolling motor remotes around my neck.  Knowing the water here would be close to chest deep I removed the remotes and placed them and my phone on the dash.  Normally, when wading I either keep the remotes with me if fishing shallow or put the anchor out along with the power pole.  This time I did neither. I just put the power pole down and got out.   About 20 yards from the boat I saw some bait about 30 yards farther.  After moving up and making a couple of casts I looked back to see my boat floating free in 3-4 foot water.

 Second bad decision was not going to shore and removing my wading gear, boots, net, fish basket,  bait bucket and clothes.  I went for the boat thinking it would be easy to catch.  At this time the wind was picking up and the current getting stronger.  After a few minutes, I got within a few yards of the boat but as the water got deeper I wasn’t gaining any distance.  I cast my croaker to the boat and on the second cast hooked the seat.  I tightened the drag on 30 pound braid and hoped to pull the boat to me.  After a while I realized the boat was pulling me farther out but I still thought I could wind the reel and pump the rod to get to the boat.  About this time I lost all contact with the bottom due to deeper water.  I used all the strength I could muster to try to loop the line around the front cleat so the boat would turn into the wind and reduce the wind and current influence.  After two tries I gave up on that because I just couldn’t get far enough in front to get the line over the cleat.

Meantime, one of the guests shucked his gear and swam out toward me but when he got about 40 -50 yards away he started cramping up and had to turn back.  I could hear him hollering for me to get rid of my clothes and gear.  I thought I might need the floating basket and bait bucket to hang onto if I failed to reach the boat and had to be in the water for a long time.  Also, since my wading boots were the most expensive that Simms sells I didn’t want to lose them or my fishing rod unless the situation got real serious.

After a while I concluded I just wasn’t going to reach the boat due to the strengthening wind so I tightened the drag to what I thought to be the breaking point.   All this time I’m holding the rod up with it bowed over almost double.  Finally, a bigger wave broke the line.  Now I am over my head with no chance of catching the boat but still hoping another boat would come to the rescue in time for my guests to make the weigh in.  Another, boat anchored farther out did pull anchor and head for the dock.  It passed about 150 yards from my boat but never noticed the fact it was floating empty and I was waving and hollering on the other side of it.  

I started back to shore but found I wasn’t gaining against the strengthening current and wind.  At this time I debated with myself about whether to dump the gear or just hang onto it and float until someone found me.  One of the guests on the shore spotted a boat in a cove quite a distance away.  He ran across the point up a gravel road, through a marsh and found wade fishermen that were also in the same tournament.  Their guide loaded up and came to the rescue.  They didn’t see me when they passed so they went to get the boat and then came back looking for me and the other guest who by now had made it to where he could touch the bottom.  After about 45 plus minutes in the water I was glad to be back in a boat.  I told the guide I hoped I didn’t mess up his getting to the weigh in.   He graciously said it didn’t matter. 

I checked the time on my phone and realized we still had a chance to weigh in.  At this point I’m back in control of the situation.  I ran to the shore to pick up the others, pressed them to load quickly and ran full throttle to the dock.  I had them take the fish box and go on while I kept everything else and loaded the boat.

 After putting up the boat in my garage and loading all their gear in my truck I joined them at the weigh in. There I found out we had placed seventh in the tournament with 22 pounds while the winner had 28 pounds.  The guest who tried to swim to me and I hugged.  Someone said we had bonded. In trying to make light of the situation I told them that, while the two of us were having a swim, if they had kept fishing and caught  bigger redfish we might have won.  One of them said “f*%# you”.    Another told me he had got on his knees and prayed that I and the other guest who tried to rescue me would be OK.  That’s when I realized the extreme stress I had caused them.  That was the worst part of the whole ordeal. I remembered that earlier in the day when one of the guests had asked my age, he was surprised when I told him 73.  Looking back I’m sure that made them even more concerned when they couldn’t see me swimming.  In spite of all this they gave me a very generous tip and asked for my business card so they could book future trips.