sturgee
01-17-2003, 05:46 PM
One year I went off to China for about 10 months to work. I had a pretty good time over there overall. This was the Real China, not the one that all the tourists go too. I was in one of those Western Economic Zones where westernization was taking place, it just had not taken place yet. I was putting in telephone equipment so even the phones did not work quite up to par yet. I had to go to Hong Kong on the weekends just to make a decent call home. Anyway, after being over there for these 10 months, by myself, not speaking the language (I drew a lot of pictures to communicate), and having virtually nothing to do but drink beer and work (I’m sure nobody has done that before!!), I came home here to Vancouver. I was dying to go fishing as I could hardly remember what it was like. Anyway, me and my brother in law decided to go sturgeon fishing on the columbia river, which was a good thing, right on, lets go. We loaded up the old aluminum boat in the back of his S10 (it was a small boat) and headed off to the river. We figured that since we had this great aluminum boat that had only been patched about 10 times, we would head out into the columbia to a little island about 200 yards out. This was great, the weather was pretty good, the wind wasn’t blowing, and the 3 horse motor actually ran, we even had oars. We put in and made it to the island (there’s a pretty good hole on the other side of that island) and fished most of the day. We had a few nibbles and bites but didn’t catch anything. Anyway, we’re sitting there wondering why we haven’t caught anything and noticed that the wind had picked up a little, the waves were starting to form in the river, they weren’t too bad yet so we decided to stay awhile. Well, we stayed almost too long. We thought we better get back as the waves were looking kind of iffy so we loaded up and hopped in the boat for the 200 yard trip back to shore. We were doing pretty good till that 3 horse motor died about half way back. Once the motor quit, the wind started to blow us down river, sideways. It was very interesting trying to hold the boat with one hand on each side trying to balance it as the waves splashed up, sideways, about 1-1/2 feet high (the boat was only 4 inches out of the water with both of us in it). Anyway, my trusty brother in law grabbed the oars and started to row as we drifted downstream. We drifted about a half mile before we finally made it to shore. We got out and looked around at where we were at, we were at least a half mile down with nowhere to get the boat to the road so we could load it up. We had to DRAG the boat, with the motor and all our gear uphill through the woods, across the railroad tracks, and again uphill, through the woods and over the guardrail that runs next to the highway. This only tooks us about an hour or so. Anyway, we made it to the highway just to find out that we then had to walk a half mile to get the rig. I stayed behind, my brother in law walked (it was his truck). I always wondered what the people thought when they passed me sitting there alongside the road in an aluminum boat with no trailer, just sitting there on the ground. Anyway, the trunk made it back, we loaded the boat up and headed home none for the worse and not only that, but we didn’t catch anything....
Go Figure
But at least I got to fish......
Fish On
Go Figure
But at least I got to fish......
Fish On