Trying To Out Paddle A Down Pour In My Float Tube

Headed out yesterday for a day on the water, just me, my float tube and the pickerel. I forgot how long it takes to get anywhere in the float tube unless you have turbo legs and big flippers, but it’s so relaxing and you are so close to the water. And that makes it really exciting when one of those pickerel explodes right at the float tube, which is often.

The thing with the float tube is that there isn’t a lot of room to bring along extras. I have a zipped pocket on each side where I can store a few things but it’s limited space so for my fishing vest is indispensable. I can get so much extra stuff in all the pockets I have in my vest. Sunscreen, bug spray, extra hooks, weights, extra fishing line. Even bandages for those times the pickerel gets me instead of the other way around.

When I am fishing from a boat or a canoe I don’t usually think about what I bring with me. I bring everything I have basically, but I have to do some thinking before going in my float tube.

What I didn’t bring with me yesterday was rain gear and as it turned out I really needed to. That darn weather guy lied again, it’s getting so I don’t trust those weather people.

I started fishing in the Salmon River at Redbank and had some good fun, well until the wind picked up and then I had to head to another spot that was more protected from the wind. So I headed to the other side of the road where I knew there were lots of spots that I might be able to get out of the wind and yet still fish. It was much faster in the canoe.

One thing that was likely a funny site was me in my neoprene waders carrying my float tube and fishing rod while still wearing my flippers. They are hard to get on and tied right when I have all my gear on so I figured it would be easier to walk to the other side of the road. Not sure if it was or not as it’s some hard to pick my feet high enough to walk with the flippers on and it was hot, very hot.

Even though the side of the road I was on was less windy I still had to paddle a ways to get to a protected area.

I saw some heavy dark clouds that looked like they might be heading my way. They seem to have moved off a bit so I kept fishing. A few minutes later it started to rain, just a few drops so I continued fishing. I don’t mind the rain as long as it’s not windy as well.

Then I heard thunder and I do not like being on the water when there is a chance to get hit by lightening. I was in a small pond fishing bass about 20 years ago and lighting hit a hill on the bank of the pond right beside me and scared the crap out of me, glad I was in the water. I made record time getting out of there.

Well when the thunder started, even though it was a long ways off I was about to wait for it to reach me and headed back to the safety of my car.

The closer I got to the shore the harder it rained. It seemed the hard I was kicking the harder it came down. Then the skies opened, and I mean really opened. The rain came down so hard it hurt and I all but lost sight of the shore, which wasn’t far off at all.

All I could do was laugh and keep on kicking. It reminded me of the first time I took my son Steve fishing trout in a small pond. We were of course at the farthest point away from our truck when it started coming down like Steve had never seen before. It scared him but then all we could do was laugh as I paddled the canoe as fast as I could. We were both completely drenched to the skin. But it only lasted a few minutes and it was over.

The rain yesterday didn’t want to let up.

I packed up and headed home only to find that once I left Chipman the roads were completely dry. It had not even rained a little just a couple of miles away from where I was fishing. But the rain soon caught up with me and I was hit with the torrential down pour at least 4 times on the way home. It followed me all the way home. When I was driving up Mountain Road it was coming down so hard I was surprised there weren’t accidents everywhere.

Even though I got rained out and headed home about 5 hours early I still had 7 hours of good fun fishing pickerel.