The One That Nearly Got Away
A Fish Story
by Diane
Wednesday morning, September 7, 2011- A beautiful day dawned and one skilled fisherman and two amateurs, his wife Joy and her sister Diane, loaded up the boat with cooler, sun block, lunch, and themselves for a grand day of fishing for rainbow trout at the Oakley Reservoir in Oakley, Idaho. Clayne had already hooked up the fishing boat and had all the gear inside it.
Our first stop of the morning was at Unit 54, the local quick stop in Burley, Idaho for Idaho fishing licenses. We two amateurs were positive we didn’t want to get caught by the game warden without a proper license to fish. So out come the debit cards and then the licenses were printed out: one for a non-resident two day pass (mine) and the other for an Idaho resident (Joy) senior citizen year round license which included hunting too. My two day non-resident license cost nearly as much as Joy’s year-round resident license. Clayne got his bait of wiggly worms.
So, off we go heading to the hills. As we near the beginning of the climb to the top of the ridge before we head down into the canyon and the dam, we see a huge “O” painted on the side of the dam itself. This area is the dryest land I think I have ever seen.
We turn off the black top onto dusty gravel (if we’re lucky) roads, where we cross over irrigation canals turning this dust bowl into farmland. As we begin the ascent up the mountainside, I notice that my brother in law is NOT traveling as fast on this bumpy road, as he used to do when he took us kids, and several snowmobiles on the back of a trailer up to the Pommerelle Ski area.
My sister is OK with this slower pace as this road is what we always called “a washboard” road, with ruts and bumps all along the way, It is curvy with no security railings along the side of the road either. We were very concerned should we meet other folk coming our way - as it seemed there was not enough room for two vehicles to meet.
Clayne assures us that we are OK, and I think he’s tickled that we are so scared. He tells us that people actually live up here and further back into the mountains than where we are going. I don’t believe that is the life for me, and neither does Joy. So, we twist and bump and wind our way up to the top of the mountain, only to start twisting down to the reservoir itself. We turn a true horseshoe curve and then come around another curve and start the descent down to the water’s edge.
We've seen 2 or 3 fishing boats already in the water, so we are getting anxious to not only get off the little road, but get in the cool, clean water... it looks so beautiful, so clear you could almost see the bottom. However, I am disappointed that it is a red rock canyon type reservoir with no green trees or grass. Joy explains that it is a dam built between two mountain sides and so no trees, just rock. But it is really beautiful and different from what I usually see around water.
Clayne backs the boat down to the loading dock, and gets out to go to the back to unload the boat. In just a couple of seconds, he comes back up, opens the door and says gently without concern, but with surprise in his voice: “You know what???
We lost the boat.” “Lost the boat?” we scream! “What?????” “Where????” We want to laugh (and we do) but the sheer fear that we have really lost the boat is palpable.
So, back up we go to find our boat along the dusty trail. Well, we hope it’s on the dusty trail, it could be on the highway for all we know... We pass through the horseshoe curve again, and keep going higher on the road. We look down at the fishermen below, and wonder out loud if they saw us when we lost the boat. We said “Can’t you just hear those guys when they saw the boat slide off? They probably thought “That guy must be drunk, ‘cause he just lost his boat and kept on going.”
We turn off the black top onto dusty gravel (if we’re lucky) roads, where we cross over irrigation canals turning this dust bowl into farmland. As we begin the ascent up the mountainside, I notice that my brother in law is NOT traveling as fast on this bumpy road, as he used to do when he took us kids, and several snowmobiles on the back of a trailer up to the Pommerelle Ski area.
My sister is OK with this slower pace as this road is what we always called “a washboard” road, with ruts and bumps all along the way, It is curvy with no security railings along the side of the road either. We were very concerned should we meet other folk coming our way - as it seemed there was not enough room for two vehicles to meet.
Clayne assures us that we are OK, and I think he’s tickled that we are so scared. He tells us that people actually live up here and further back into the mountains than where we are going. I don’t believe that is the life for me, and neither does Joy. So, we twist and bump and wind our way up to the top of the mountain, only to start twisting down to the reservoir itself. We turn a true horseshoe curve and then come around another curve and start the descent down to the water’s edge.
We've seen 2 or 3 fishing boats already in the water, so we are getting anxious to not only get off the little road, but get in the cool, clean water... it looks so beautiful, so clear you could almost see the bottom. However, I am disappointed that it is a red rock canyon type reservoir with no green trees or grass. Joy explains that it is a dam built between two mountain sides and so no trees, just rock. But it is really beautiful and different from what I usually see around water.
Clayne backs the boat down to the loading dock, and gets out to go to the back to unload the boat. In just a couple of seconds, he comes back up, opens the door and says gently without concern, but with surprise in his voice: “You know what???
We lost the boat.” “Lost the boat?” we scream! “What?????” “Where????” We want to laugh (and we do) but the sheer fear that we have really lost the boat is palpable.
So, back up we go to find our boat along the dusty trail. Well, we hope it’s on the dusty trail, it could be on the highway for all we know... We pass through the horseshoe curve again, and keep going higher on the road. We look down at the fishermen below, and wonder out loud if they saw us when we lost the boat. We said “Can’t you just hear those guys when they saw the boat slide off? They probably thought “That guy must be drunk, ‘cause he just lost his boat and kept on going.”
Isn’t that a picture perfect visual? Boat comes off, guy keeps on driving....
Well we go around a few more bends, and there is the boat. We all yell “THERE IT IS, THERE IT IS!” so surprised, because it is just sitting right there, right in the middle of the road, just like that is where it is supposed to be. So we have to pass it up, turn truck and trailer around, pass up the boat again, and then back up the truck to the boat so Clayne can put it back on the trailer.
We can see the drag marks of the propeller where it slipped off the trailer a little at a time. Clayne finds the problem - the cable slipped because the clamp that was supposed to hold it was not working properly.
With the washboard roads, it was bound to happen. Clayne works that boat back up on the trailer with the strength of two young men!
As a matter of fact, two young men in a truck do come by, and never even offer to help. They pass us by, driving right on the edge of the road - too close for comfort for me!
With the washboard roads, it was bound to happen. Clayne works that boat back up on the trailer with the strength of two young men!
As a matter of fact, two young men in a truck do come by, and never even offer to help. They pass us by, driving right on the edge of the road - too close for comfort for me!
Joy and I are amazed by Clayne’s strength
and that he did this all by himself!
However, we still think it’s pretty funny that the boat came off and none of us noticed it. Clayne said he looked out his side mirror, and seeing the trailer thought all was well. Joy said she never looked down the side mirror, but could see the boat clearly now that she looked, and will watch in the future.
So, back down to the water again, and this time we all head out to sea. Clayne takes us to his favorite spots, but it is slow trolling, with no bites for a while. Then Joy gets the first nibble, and reels in our first catch of the day. Then I get lucky and reel in another rainbow trout! I am so pumped!
So this is how our day goes - talk about spoiled! Clayne not only baits our hooks with the worms, then dips them in his special sauce of cod liver oil, but he also brings them in with his net, and takes the hook off for us. The he baits the hook again, so we can fish to our hearts content. He does this patiently all day long. He never once fished. He guided us with his fish finder when we were trolling so that we would know when fish were around and we’d be ready. Here comes a whole bunch, he’d say, or you got about 20 coming up. But, they would just pass us by. We trolled to our hearts content and enjoyed each other’s successes when we did catching a fish.
On our return to the dock, around 4 PM, we trolled all they way back. We kept going through schools of fish but just didn’t have any luck. Joy did have an excuse however - when she pulled up her line, her bait was entirely gone. She’d been trolling with just the hook. I didn’t have an excuse. So we lived us to the words of A.K. Best when he said, “The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.”
We did have a really lovely day of fishing. Even though our boat was the “one that nearly got away,” we wound up with a great little mess of fish. Through Clayne’s patience and guidance, we brought home ten beautiful rainbow trout.
"U m m m m m m GOOD!"
Love,
Diane
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