Rescues on the River

Since we had two cars we didn’t need to hire a shuttle.  We dropped our equipment off at the Conant boat ramp with little Nick to keep an eye on it and to setup the pontoon.  Both Nick and I drove to the Byington boat ramp and left the Explorer there.  We drove back to Conant and little Nick had everything ready to go.  

Since we put in at mid-day, we passed up the usual camping spot which is on an island at the start of the float.  We continued on and stopped at all the “good looking” fishing spots.  

Little Nick caught the first fish, a robust cutthroat.  Way to go Nick!!!  This was a good start to the float. 

There are a lot of channels where the river braids forming islands and structure for good places to fish.  We stopped at a few more side channels where we ended up catching, between the three of us, a grand slam; at least one each of the various types of fish in the river, cutthroat, brown, rainbow and white fish.  One thing that was noticeable was that there was a white fish kill.  After I got home I read in the paper that it was due to …kidney disease.

While the side channels help create good fishing spots they can also create dangers in the water.  While we were floating, a side channel happened to hit little Nick sideways and tipped over the kayak.  Luckily we always wore our life jackets while floating.  Nick quickly pulled over to him, had him continue to hold on to his own kayak and the oars while at the same time holding onto his kayak while pulling him and the kayak out of the current and over to the bank.  After emptying the water out of little Nick’s Kayak and allowing him to rest a bit, we carefully floated over to the next campsite.  Once there, Nick was able to get him into a dry and warm change of clothes. 

Another time, while fishing one of our favorite series of side channels and islands I crossed a channel too close to where it entered the deep water of a different channel.  Although the channel I was crossing was only knee deep and seemed safe enough, the current was fast and the rocks themselves started sliding under my feet down toward the deeper water.  I ended up following the rest of the rocks right into the deep water.  The water was well over my head and the current took me in even deeper to the middle of the run.  Although I tried to swim, I had a hard time even raising my arm because the fly line with the rod attached was tangled up around my hand and fingers. Each time I went to make a stroke, I had to bring up the whole rod through the water.  I had already gotten rid of my hat and net but couldn’t let go of the rod, even though I tried several times.  By now I started worrying.  I sawing Nick running over to help and tried to yell to him that I was having trouble.  He jumped in and pulled me out.  

After Nick rescued me, a couple of ladies fly fishing from the breast cancer awareness program Casting for Recovery, pulled over to make sure I was alright and to help give me food, water, change my clothes and get help to move the kayaks and pontoon boat over to the island we were now on.  I let little Nick know this is why your mother always insists that you wear a pair of clean underpants.  You never know when a lady fly fishing guide is going to be changing your clothes.  It is times like these that you realize that those people fly fishing around you may also be the ones to help save your life.