Let me tell you about my BEST dunking. It was April in Alaska, air and water were 40 degrees, and my buddy and I were floating the river. Slick was on the oars and I was side drifting through fishy-looking water. I hooked up and put a lot of pressure on a nice buck to keep him out of a root wad. Slick made hard for the far bank (small river) and I hopped out. There wasn't a good place to land the fish below me, but the buck was hell-bent on heading through the short rapids 80' or so downstream. The smart move would have been to get back in the drift boat and follow him down. But I'm a tough guy, so I was going to bring the fish back up to me. Uh huh.

Three minutes later, the fish is in the sweepers 50' below directly me and my line is getting tangled in the branches. I waded down in the swift, mid-thigh wader, reeling up on the fish and trying to figure out a way to get Brer Rabbit out of the briar patch. Less than a rod length of line out, I can see him, nose to the shore. He's so deep in the bushes I can't reach him. I put maximum pressure on him, and out he bolts around me and down another 30' to where a big tree has fallen in at a right angle, extending half way across the river. The tree also defines the start of the short rapids.

I yell for Slick to bring the boat, wade out to the end of the tree and try to pull this wood-seeking missle out of his latest home. I'm now up to the tops of my waders. The buck is still trying to get under the base of the tree at the bank. I figure I've got one chance: horse him along the trunk, tail him, release him, and then get the hell out of Dodge.By some miracle, I do just that making a backhanded, one-try grab on a 12lb rainbow-colored fish as pretty as you'll ever see. The fish wriggles like crazy, so I end up with both hands cradling him and my rod. With no hands free, and no way of getting to my pliers, I leaned forward and bit the leader close to the hook. I then dropped him back in the river. The current had pushed me out and down a little during this episode, and water is now seeping in over my waders. Another boat drifts past with laughing occupants and I get a "Nice release!" comment from them. "Thanks" I think, "here I am near to drowning and you guys compliment me on my release". But I'm too tough to ask for a hand. Besides, Slick is on the way, and like the Wolfman he'll think of something. We'll, Slick didn't make it in time so I was going to go for a swim one way or another. I put the rod handle in my teeth, made a lunge/ paddle for the end of the tree and managed to grab hang on till Slick arrived. He grabbed the rod out of my teeth, helped me aboard and laughed his butt off as I stripped off my top layers and tried to wring them dry. Fortunately I was wearing a wading belt because everything from the chest up was soaked, and it was a long, long way down the river to the takeout. I also had wickaways clothes that did, eventually, dry out that day.

But I landed the pretty buck, and that makes it a lot better than most of my other dunkings!

PS It also promoted me to spend $70 via Bass Pro on a belt-mounted (waist pouch) SOS-pender CO2 life vest. This is cheap insurance, and I sufficiently out of the way and low weight I don't even know it's there. I wear it everywhere these days. Highly recommended.