Which one? It seems as though everytime out on the river I take a dunking or two or three or four...
Anyone who knows me knows what I am talking about.
My worst one was up on Kodiak Is. I was about 12 or 13 in a pair of hip boots and got caught in some fast water. I could not move back or forwards and I could feel the river starting to get a hold of my legs and if I didnt do something I was going to end up down river. There was a large branch hanging over the river so I decided to make a jump for it. I heived my rod onto the bank and jumped. Well I did not think about the physics of the river, the very thing that was about to take me downstream. If I jumped the river would obviously get a very easy hold of me but I didnt think about this so I JUMPED. The river grabbed me and flipped me on my back but I did have just enough time to throw my arms up and back and grab the branch...THANK GOD! So there I was just holding on trying to gain my strength back but my hip boots were now full of water. There was no way I could lift myself out of the water so I slowly made my way towards the bank by sliding my hands along the branch toward dry land. The bank was steep there so I just held my place for about 10-15 minutes before I could pull myself up but there was too much water in my waders so I kicked them off slowly, threw them onto the bank and managed to pull myself up. Everthing was there except for hat which floated downstream but some nice man fished it out of the river for me, left it on the bank and walked away.
On a side not I also managed to get myself stuck in the mud fishing lake up on the island. I sank nearly waster deep and began to scream and yell for help but no one came. After about 2 hours of yelling and struggling I managed to pull myself out of my waders and crawl to solid ground caked in mud.
The following spring I took my floattube out for the first time. Fearful I might over inflate it and I played it safe and underinflated. When I looked at it I sorta thought to myself "hmmm the ones in the store and books look so much bigger and the canvas is tight to the intertube." Well it was grossly uninflated. I took it out to Crabapple lake and barely managed to stay afloat. I shipped huge amounts of water into my waders and could barely stay afloat. Its amazing how much work it takes to power a floattube when its underinflated.
Those are my stories and I do know for sure that people who know me are not at all surprised by this...
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Ryan