A (slightly wet) TR

My first day out this year to fish, hoo ha! A gorgeous day not a cloud
in the sky so methinks to float the local Elkhart R. which is home to
smallmouth, although generally smaller than the Maine variety I have come
to worship. However, the following will suffice for the trip report;

I dang near went to sleep with the fishes this morning. The river had a
fair current, nothing I couldn't handle. After about 2 hrs of no fishing
action I came upon a "sweeper" that almost blocked the river, except for
a small part that would be room enough to get the boat thru. The current
picked up at the narrow point and I didn't get the boat lined up just
right. It went broadside to the current (with maybe 6" standing waves)
and I went into the sweeper broadside. The pontoon nearest the tree went
up on the trunk, the upstream pontoon went down in the water and the
current flipped it over in an eye blink. Ass over teacup I went, hit the
bottom, came up and hit my head on the trunk. Went back down aways, came
up again and hit my head a second time. (I thinking now, a helluva Reid!)
By now I was running out of air and ideas, so I swallowed some dirty
river water and came up under a pontoon! The boat had done a complete
rollover and the current had kept it against the tree trunk. I managed
to float it around the end of the sweeper (my feet are touching bottom
now) and guided it over to the shallow water where I boarded it again.
Didn't even lose my glasses. The camera bag got wet but the camera
stayed dry. But I lost my lucky fishing hat. During my time in the
water, my waders filled up to the knees, no problem until I tried to get
out of the boat to empty them out, it felt like I had lead weights for
legs. Dumped about a bucketful out of each leg and put them back on.
After that the rest of the float was boring. BTW, didn't even get a
strike the whole float. An interesting addendum: today was the first time
I wore my new SOSpenders and during my underwater time I never once
thought about them. Totally forgot I had them on. I wonder what would
have happened if I had pulled the lanyard after being tossed in? Would
they have shot me up like a cork and really conk my head on that damned
tree trunk? Maybe it's just as well I don't know. :-/

A dryer and wiser pontoon driver...

Frank Church
...beat that one Reid!

Fun time I bet....but you were damned lucky. Sweepers a killers if you get
up against them.

john\

"Frank Church" wrote in message
.11...
My first day out this year to fish, hoo ha! A gorgeous day not a cloud
in the sky so methinks to float the local Elkhart R. which is home to
smallmouth, although generally smaller than the Maine variety I have come
to worship. However, the following will suffice for the trip report;

I dang near went to sleep with the fishes this morning. The river had a
fair current, nothing I couldn't handle. After about 2 hrs of no fishing
action I came upon a "sweeper" that almost blocked the river, except for
a small part that would be room enough to get the boat thru. The current
picked up at the narrow point and I didn't get the boat lined up just
right. It went broadside to the current (with maybe 6" standing waves)
and I went into the sweeper broadside. The pontoon nearest the tree went
up on the trunk, the upstream pontoon went down in the water and the
current flipped it over in an eye blink. Ass over teacup I went, hit the
bottom, came up and hit my head on the trunk. Went back down aways, came
up again and hit my head a second time. (I thinking now, a helluva Reid!)
By now I was running out of air and ideas, so I swallowed some dirty
river water and came up under a pontoon! The boat had done a complete
rollover and the current had kept it against the tree trunk. I managed
to float it around the end of the sweeper (my feet are touching bottom
now) and guided it over to the shallow water where I boarded it again.
Didn't even lose my glasses. The camera bag got wet but the camera
stayed dry. But I lost my lucky fishing hat. During my time in the
water, my waders filled up to the knees, no problem until I tried to get
out of the boat to empty them out, it felt like I had lead weights for
legs. Dumped about a bucketful out of each leg and put them back on.
After that the rest of the float was boring. BTW, didn't even get a
strike the whole float. An interesting addendum: today was the first time
I wore my new SOSpenders and during my underwater time I never once
thought about them. Totally forgot I had them on. I wonder what would
have happened if I had pulled the lanyard after being tossed in? Would
they have shot me up like a cork and really conk my head on that damned
tree trunk? Maybe it's just as well I don't know. :-/

A dryer and wiser pontoon driver...

Frank Church
..beat that one Reid!

Frank Church wrote:
My first day out this year to fish, hoo ha! A gorgeous day not a cloud
in the sky so methinks to float the local Elkhart R. which is home to
smallmouth, although generally smaller than the Maine variety I have come
to worship. However, the following will suffice for the trip report;
the perils of Frank Sr. snipped

Damn man, be careful out there ! And if you're gonna be where
there's a current consider a canoe instead of that pontoon
contraption.

--
Ken Fortenberry

Ken Fortenberry wrote in
:

Frank Church wrote:
My first day out this year to fish, hoo ha! A gorgeous day not a
cloud
in the sky so methinks to float the local Elkhart R. which is home to
smallmouth, although generally smaller than the Maine variety I have
come to worship. However, the following will suffice for the trip
report; the perils of Frank Sr. snipped

Damn man, be careful out there ! And if you're gonna be where
there's a current consider a canoe instead of that pontoon
contraption.

....Kenny, all I gotta do is step into a canoe and it's like stepping on a
wet bar of soap...canoes are out. Actually, the fact that that pontoon boat
won't sink might have saved my keister, it allowed me to hang on until my
feet reached bottom. I don't think any canoe would have rolled 360 degrees
and come up dry. I will, however, order a new p/boat from Cabelas tonite,
one that is made for moving water, mine isn't but it has lasted me over 10
years now, mostly in moving water. But this was FAST moving water.

Frank Sr.

On Thu, 26 May 2005 01:01:15 GMT, Frank Church
wrote:

Ken Fortenberry wrote in
m:

Frank Church wrote:
My first day out this year to fish, hoo ha! A gorgeous day not a
cloud
in the sky so methinks to float the local Elkhart R. which is home to
smallmouth, although generally smaller than the Maine variety I have
come to worship. However, the following will suffice for the trip
report; the perils of Frank Sr. snipped

Damn man, be careful out there ! And if you're gonna be where
there's a current consider a canoe instead of that pontoon
contraption.

...Kenny, all I gotta do is step into a canoe and it's like stepping on a
wet bar of soap...canoes are out. Actually, the fact that that pontoon boat
won't sink might have saved my keister, it allowed me to hang on until my
feet reached bottom. I don't think any canoe would have rolled 360 degrees
and come up dry. I will, however, order a new p/boat from Cabelas tonite,
one that is made for moving water, mine isn't but it has lasted me over 10
years now, mostly in moving water. But this was FAST moving water.

_Dry_? Maybe not, but not sunk, easily. Put sponsons on a canoe, and
you'll beat a "Bass Bust-R" every time, in every way, save pre-launch
consideration, such as transport (they are shorter) and _possibly_
one-man carry-to-launch, IMO. Actually, thinking about it, I've never
seen a _sunken_ modern canoe, even an aluminum Grumman won't go to the
bottom, in my experience - it'll fill _almost_ over the gunwales, reach
neutral buoyancy, and "hover" in the GASP meniscus...

Again, IMO, multihulls have a place, but small, short, fast-water
rivercraft isn't that place.

TC,
R

On Wed, 25 May 2005 21:42:28 GMT, Frank Church
wrote:

My first day out this year to fish, hoo ha! A gorgeous day not a cloud
in the sky so methinks to float the local Elkhart R. which is home to
smallmouth, although generally smaller than the Maine variety I have come
to worship. However, the following will suffice for the trip report;

I dang near went to sleep with the fishes this morning. The river had a
fair current, nothing I couldn't handle. After about 2 hrs of no fishing
action I came upon a "sweeper" that almost blocked the river, except for
a small part that would be room enough to get the boat thru. The current
picked up at the narrow point and I didn't get the boat lined up just
right. It went broadside to the current (with maybe 6" standing waves)
and I went into the sweeper broadside. The pontoon nearest the tree went
up on the trunk, the upstream pontoon went down in the water and the
current flipped it over in an eye blink. Ass over teacup I went, hit the
bottom, came up and hit my head on the trunk. Went back down aways, came
up again and hit my head a second time. (I thinking now, a helluva Reid!)
By now I was running out of air and ideas, so I swallowed some dirty
river water and came up under a pontoon! The boat had done a complete
rollover and the current had kept it against the tree trunk. I managed
to float it around the end of the sweeper (my feet are touching bottom
now) and guided it over to the shallow water where I boarded it again.
Didn't even lose my glasses. The camera bag got wet but the camera
stayed dry. But I lost my lucky fishing hat. During my time in the
water, my waders filled up to the knees, no problem until I tried to get
out of the boat to empty them out, it felt like I had lead weights for
legs. Dumped about a bucketful out of each leg and put them back on.
After that the rest of the float was boring. BTW, didn't even get a
strike the whole float. An interesting addendum: today was the first time
I wore my new SOSpenders and during my underwater time I never once
thought about them. Totally forgot I had them on. I wonder what would
have happened if I had pulled the lanyard after being tossed in? Would
they have shot me up like a cork and really conk my head on that damned
tree trunk? Maybe it's just as well I don't know. :-/

A dryer and wiser pontoon driver...

Frank Church
..beat that one Reid!

That is effing scary as hell. You losing your judgement, ya old bass-catching
fart? Or just trying to out-do Junior?

/daytripper (Cut that ****e out, ya hear?)

Frank Church wrote:
My first day out this year to fish, hoo ha! A gorgeous day not a cloud
in the sky so methinks to float the local Elkhart R. which is home to
smallmouth, although generally smaller than the Maine variety I have
come to worship. However, the following will suffice for the trip
report;

I dang near went to sleep with the fishes this morning. The river
had a fair current, nothing I couldn't handle. After about 2 hrs of
no fishing action I came upon a "sweeper" that almost blocked the
river, except for a small part that would be room enough to get the
boat thru. The current picked up at the narrow point and I didn't
get the boat lined up just right. It went broadside to the current
(with maybe 6" standing waves) and I went into the sweeper broadside.
The pontoon nearest the tree went up on the trunk, the upstream
pontoon went down in the water and the current flipped it over in an
eye blink. Ass over teacup I went, hit the bottom, came up and hit
my head on the trunk. Went back down aways, came up again and hit my
head a second time. (I thinking now, a helluva Reid!) By now I was
running out of air and ideas, so I swallowed some dirty river water
and came up under a pontoon! The boat had done a complete rollover
and the current had kept it against the tree trunk. I managed to
float it around the end of the sweeper (my feet are touching bottom
now) and guided it over to the shallow water where I boarded it
again. Didn't even lose my glasses. The camera bag got wet but the
camera stayed dry. But I lost my lucky fishing hat. During my time
in the water, my waders filled up to the knees, no problem until I
tried to get out of the boat to empty them out, it felt like I had
lead weights for legs. Dumped about a bucketful out of each leg and
put them back on. After that the rest of the float was boring. BTW,
didn't even get a strike the whole float. An interesting addendum:
today was the first time I wore my new SOSpenders and during my
underwater time I never once thought about them. Totally forgot I had
them on. I wonder what would have happened if I had pulled the
lanyard after being tossed in? Would they have shot me up like a cork
and really conk my head on that damned tree trunk? Maybe it's just as
well I don't know. :-/

A dryer and wiser pontoon driver...

Man! Glad you're still with us, Frank. It could have been a lot worse,
but instead it makes a helluva story. Lil Frank's got nothin' on you!
--
TL,
Tim
---------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj/

daytripper wrote in
:

That is effing scary as hell. You losing your judgement, ya old
bass-catching fart? Or just trying to out-do Junior?

/daytripper (Cut that ****e out, ya hear?)

....call it a senior moment Trip. :-)

"Tim J." wrote in news:se-
:


Man! Glad you're still with us, Frank. It could have been a lot worse,
but instead it makes a helluva story. Lil Frank's got nothin' on you!

....just got tired of Junior having all the fun. ;-))

A dryer and wiser pontoon driver...

Frank Church
..beat that one Reid!

There I was at 30,000 feet without a parachute. The stewardess had run out
of olives for the martinis. YOU WANT SCARY, OLD MAN? I'll give you scary.
Glad you're all right. We still have some fishing to do together. How's
the move going?

--
Frank Reid
Euthenize to respond