While guiding the Alagnak I took two doctors, father and son, and a real gun-ho bonafied dyed-in-the-wool bass fisherman from the great state of Florida. The father and son were trying to reconcile a lifetime of dissapointment in each other and the bass fisherdood was complaining a mile a minute about how the salmon (Chinook, Coho, and Chum) were not anything like what he'd expected and how great a 12lb Bass fought in comparison.
I was working with these guys for the next 5 days and after the first day I was trying everyway I could to get the "good" fisherman, and I use this term loosely, off my boat and fish with someone else so I could salvage what I could of the "dream trip" with the father and son.
This guy would barely listen to his mother, who could probably out fish him in he Everglades. Mid-day on the second day we were in the outide bend of the river on a drift back bouncing corkies and eggs for Chinook when the Bass Master climbed up on the bow of the boat and stood on the foot wide aluminum bow. That really wasn't safe on this boat and I told him to back up a foot and stand where he was supposed to. He wouldn't listen, at all. I'd had it with this guy... A short time later I looked downstream and noticed a log sticking out of the bank about 15' and 5' off the deck of the boat. I saw the log, and I saw him, and I saw the log, and I saw him, the two doctors saw me looking back and forth and saw the log and looked at me as I said nothing...
SPLASH! The trip did have a happy ending after all, at least for three of us!
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Mark Strand
aka - TC