Moist Life Jacket

Buddy I and I hit the river in our pontoons and had a memorable day floating. The fishing was slower than expected but we did hook two. One of those two acted like a big buck, didn't come to surface, stayed deep, never budged much. I hooked it at the top of a fast run and couldn't give any ground so it was a slow going battle until that hook finally worked its way out. I had the rod corked for a couple minutes and tightened the drag twice so it was something bigger than I had hooked in a while. I'm not gonna guess any weights because that is just stupid but I was a little sad to feel that hook pop free, sadder than the next fish lost that day. Both were hooked on the infamous bead and as some of you may know, some times you just don't hook a fish well using the pegged bead setup. At least the second fish made a couple fast runs and crashed the surface. A much more typical size and fight than the first. Just one of those days as far as bite. The river was high so there were fewer fishy spots than expected.

The float was new to me, I wanted to follow my buddy the whole time because the river is popular for white water rafting, splits in several places, and has the type of drops you can't see down until you are in them and they are loaded with rocks. I was fishing a run he didn't like and he went down the river around the corner and out of view. Of course this is the time there is a nasty chute into a sweeper and I take it. I rowed rocks just to stop myself from being launched into wood and broke the paddle of my oar about in half and bent the shaft a little (keep in mind this is pontoon level construction). Ive never had to row rocks going down a chute like that and now I know it can be done, leaves you and your gear bruised but that's better than being pinned to a log drowning as you say goodbye to life. Further downstream there was another epic rapid and he was there above it pointing to where to go so that one was handled okay, even with a gimp oar.

All in all it was a memorable day, not so much for the fishing, but I did do bigger rapids than I have ever done in a pontoon and survived some hairy situations in which reaction time needed to be faster than the brain can think. In the end I was pretty moist and it was from surviving situations and building up some confidence. This was not a hard boat float by any means so I think I could do a lot of stuff now that I wouldn't have been ready for in the past. I took water down my jacket and waders multiple times. Felt weightless going over waves and bumped rocks in the troughs.

Moisture Level: 8/10, could have caught a fish to make it a 10