Once again a warm welcome and greeting to The Journal on Fishing with Rod your top fishing web site in the North West for fishing information, tall tails, fishing tips, video, discussing environmental issues and much more.
The end of last week saw the start of another fishing trip in the great province of British Columbia. I was excited with the thought of once again hooking my third Chinook of the season. Although I had hooked two, only one had come to hand as the second, the previous gained its freedom as a poorly tied knot by this angler had come untied at the swivel just as I was about to slip into the gaping net. It reinforced the fact one most take more care being it the most simplest of tasks. I cannot remember when I had lost a fish to a badly tied knot in the last 45 years of fishing but I do remember when I was a teenager I lost several chinooks in Cowichan Bay while mooching plug cut herring. I had not made enough loops tieing a clincher knot, joining the the leader to the hook. My dad then taught me the Palomar knot that is supposed to be one of the best knots ever, that’s what dad said anyway. (Knots by Grog is a good web site to go for a variety of fishing knots)
As I was excited to get out on the water once again I was having a restless night, tossing and turning, thinking of the Maple Leaf Drennan once again disappearing from sight not knowing what I had hooked until the hook was set.
So I left the confines of the warm bed and readied the last of the supplies, enough for a two day trip. Daylight had not yet broken as the Leaf Mobile was purring her way down the freeway. Only a few other cars were on the road, some returning to the big city after staying a little later at some destination celebrating and enjoying Canada Day. Some would be doing so, in order to make work that morning. This senior had no thought of work, other than casting a line a few hundred times over the next two days.
I finally reach my destination. I leave the main road, to a side road that takes me to the river. As I first have to drive down a step grade I walk it first to remove a few rocks that have tumbled down the bank over the past winter. With the road way clear I drive down to the flat but I only go maybe 200 yards and I am met with a big slide containing large boulders, too large to move. Now I am in trouble as I can not back up the hill and the road is too narrow to turn around.
Luckily I have packed a axe and a machete, maybe I can cut some bush along the road, enough to make a turning radius to enable that to happen, not that I like to cut the bush but I have no choice. I fine a place a little winder than the rest and begin to do some logging. Both cutting tools had not seen a file in a while, so as to make the task a little easier. They do the task though; it takes a few minutes to do this. I am getting hot now as the sun in rising higher in the sky, sweat beads up on my brow, needed a chain saw. I guess I am at work, like the ones I remarked about earlier.
I flip down some carpet on a soft spot, on one of the now cleared sides of the road, carpet I pack along for such a task, it has come handy a few times. I jump in the cab of the Leaf Mobile wondering if I indeed have enough room to turn the 180 degrees needed. No I have not as the boat; the Leaf Craft #2 in the back is hitting some trees. So I have to unload her, take out the coolers etc., more anxious moments
With the boat looking lost on the road I barely make the turn but the first blemish in the side of the Leaf Mobile is made, a small sampling makes contact with the fender, she is now christened.. Happily I have been able to turn; my palms are sweaty, like my brow as I load the boat the coolers back into the back.
An hour or so has passed as I made the near fatal mistake of not checking further ahead while first removing the rocks from the step grade.
I hit the gas petal and start the climb going at a fair speed too. The tires begin spin in the loose rocks and gravel as I nears safety, I come to a grinding halt, what goes. I look behind me, what the heck the boat is once again sitting in the middle of the road she has been uncermonially dumped on her behind. No wonder I spun out, lost the weight at the back end. I back down the treacherous incline, slowly to retrieve her, careful not to drive off the narrow roadway. As I reach the unhappy Leaf Craft I look up that narrow road, I see one of her oars laying there that I go and pick up before I reload the boat. Darn, after the oar had flipped out I drove over it on the way back downhill, it is now two oars, one a short paddle the other a push pole, useless now, disgusted. Back to the task of loading the boat and the coolers that are also scattered around, a disaster zone, what a trip this is turning into, its nearing noon and I have not made a cast, so much for leaving early.
With everything loaded again the boat is tied in very firmly this time and once again I am ready to go. I back further down the flat part of the road and take a good run at it. This time I make it much to my relief.
It makes me sweaty again, just thinking about this, time for a break to look at the Vedder, the Fraser and a coffee at “The Long Table.” Back with The Journal, later today.
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Topic: Back At It, The First Journal For July (Read 3995 times)