Originally Posted By: Fish-Culture
I did it for years in a 12' High laker with a 15 evinrude prop. Thought I was invincable until one april day free drifting hit a stump drifting downriver below the cabin and was ejected from the boat. Went for a little 150 yard swim and was damn lucky to get to the bank where I did. Boat was doing circles above me as it was still in gear. Nobody around and I made the stupid decision to swim back for the boat as it went past, and was damn lucky again to get the boat and crawl into it. Bombed back down to mission cold and miserable where I had launched and realized that during my swim, everything in my pockets was gone, missing, including my truck keys. Jogged up and down the hill at mission to get the blood flowing until I was able to flag someone to call the wife for the spare set of keys. That was all it took to get the OK to buy a sled, lol.


Sounds like "Into the Wild, The Sequel", except for the part where you survived.

I ran a 14' with a 20 hp at Barrier a couple times. Once for springers; once for summer steel. Only ran about a mile below the launch. Fellow I was with knew the river and knew the rocks. We survived, too.