Well being the total screwup that I sometimes am, long days on the river that never seem to end seem to occur more often than not. Maybe that why they call me "Special"
I am only 18 so all of these have occured over a very short period of time.
When I was 13 I spent a summer up on Kodiak Is. One day I decided to fish this lake instead of the Buskin river as I normally did. My dad dropped me off and went off to work as I hiked down the lake. I was walking around the shore in my hipboots casting krocidiles and kastmasters out into the lake. Everything was going fine untill I walked a stretch of mud and preceded to sink to my ankles. I struggled to get out but that only made things as I was now up to my knees in my mud and totally stuck in the middle of bear country in heighth of the salmon season. There was nothing I could do to keep the stories of bear attacks I had heard all summer out of my head. I screamed bloody murder at the top of my lungs hoping someone would hear me so I wouldnt be stuck in the mud for the next 4 hours. I waived the and screamed at passing planes but that was futile. The day seemed to drag on as clouds came in and it started to rain. I managed to pull myself out of my hipboots after a couple hours and crawl gently across the mud. I did manage to also get the hipboots untuck but I was caked with mud to the wait and so were the inside of my boots.

Another time up in Kodiak, I decided to pull out a trout rod to fish for humpies. After my dad dropped me off and went to work for the day I made the first cast with that reel in months. After about 15 feet my pixie stopped dead in the air. I looked down to find my spool totally empty. When I left that morning I did not know I only had about 5 yards of line on my reel. 8 hours manages to go by very very very slow when you have nothing to do along a river.

Lastyear I decided to drive up with my mom to work and then take her car to fish the Stilly because she works in Arlington. That way I could save some money on gas. First stop was Deer Creek and I preceded to fish it w/o a hit. So I decided to move on and give Fortson a try. I went to open her trunk and her keys were nowhere to be found. Before I closed the trunk after I put my waders back inside I set the keys in down in the trunk and closed the door, I could get into the car but not the trunk because her seats didnt go down. So I called her up and told her the situation and she 'calmy' told me that I had royally messed up. Her fiance was going to have to drive from work in Mountlake Terrace to deliver keys to me and then take me to my car.
Good 'ole Bob Arnold drove up and offered me his truck if I had keys waiting for me in Arlington but I didnt so I threw my gear in the car and locked the door and walked up to the bus stop and wait the 30 minutes or so for the bus that goes up and down the highway. On a sidenote, today I was wearing my battered old jeans that had holes in the knees and one huge hole in the crotch. I walked into my moms work like and she wasnt vary happy. I couldnt uncross my legs. Well I got there she realized that because she bought the car at the dealership in Arlington they would be able to make a key for her but her fiance still had to drive up from Mountlake Terrace to pick up, deilver the key and take me back to her car. If she had realized earlier there was a key waiting for me the day would have gone by alot faster but it just never ended.

Ive have also gotten a flat tire up on the Stilly. My jack and spare tire were rusted to the bottom of the trunk so my mom had to send up some Heman from work to help me. He literally had to climb into my trunk, give it his all and rip the tire from the trunk. Driving the 30 or so miles on the freeway that it is in a spare tire isnt very fun. I couldnt go over 35 mph and I was literally reading my history book and driving at the same time.

Thats only some of it but Ill shut up now cause if anybody really stuck with it and read all of the above ramblings I highly doubt theyed want to read more. But I have a story about a broken down car on Hwy 2 on a raining buckets Presidents day last year if anyone wants to hear that

Tight Lines
Ryab