26 May 2009

Daily Disasters

The Crowsnest has held it,s own this month .. It blew out one hot day a couple weeks ago at about 10 cm/s ,rolling mud . Then the weather cooled right down ,so we fished somewhat high water for the last two weeks with reasonable visability . Wading was often touch and go and I went for a swim , casting and crossing a fast tailout on Sunday . My feet went out and water was up to my neck in half a second ( CAMERA !)... Had to let go of my fly rod to pull the camera out of the flooding bibb of my waders ..I held it high, turned down stream , tip toed suddenly weightless , pushed by the current , scooped up that floating fly rod , moon walked in zero gravity to the bank , threw the rod to a soft spot, ejected the batteries , ejected the camera card , popped off the lense cover ,dropped shoulder straps, dumped water to my waste belt ( always tight )and was standing there looking casual by the time my friend Bill had finished the drift of his fly . I walked upstream hung the camera in the sunshine and fished the next run. Bill eventually followed the route I pointed out to him , he looked sceptical .. Bill didn't try to fish his way across, and came across without tripping up on those bowling balls ...We walked up a rocky bluff to spy on sipping trout . Bill looked closer " you look wet" ... yea.. don't tell Suzy ..Bill knows , we grew up together on the same street.. We don't tell the women folk nothing ! Our poor mothers..if they knew of our daily disasters, they would not have let us out of the house .. Our moms only new of events that required stiches, left bruises,needed assistance or intervention from doctors , teachers, police and firemen. Being dragged home to the door step by any adult was a dead give away of a disaster, as was the knock on my door from that newspaper reporter when I was eleven yeas old..busted ! Mom answered it .. When Suzy and I were dating she was picking me and some clients up at a bridge on the Waterton River.. it was a dark and stormy night (sounds familiar ?) and almost 1:30 am when we reached that take out point. It was black out ( I told those guy,s to speed it up all day ).For more than two hours I was rowing away from any river noise in the moonless dark..dodging boulders... I was worried about my girl worring about me ! She was parked on the bridge . Anticipating tears when I opened her truck door ... she had her feet up swilling a beer, reading murder mystery as usual... that was ten years ago...She's so different I married her (also a great fly fisher ) My wife Suzy worries mostly about the dog and the camera , after I fried the last camera in the Thompson River two years ago and the dog had balls of cactus stuck to all four paws . The water in my clothes eventually reached my feet and it was time to BBQ up some deer for my visiting city friend . Well the camera survived and Suzy never reads this blog ...

1 comment:

As The Wind Blows said...

Awesome story!

And awesomely true, I am so sure....how could it not be?

Toni