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I went out Saturday morning to a pond that
I have not been at for a few years. The land
has changed hands and I can go to the pond
again. It is a nice pond surrounded by pasture
and has bluegills, crappie and bass in it. It
is about 1.5 acres in size and has a maximum
depth of 12 feet. This depth is true for just
over half the pond.
I had been fishing for about an hour, when
another truck showed up with a flat bottom boat,
on a trailer, behind it. My thoughts were that
the pond was large enough for both of us to be
on and not get in each others way.
I had figured out that I needed to let the slight
breeze move me along the shore and cast up into
the shallow water and slowly retrieve the fly
back to me. Usually some place along in the retrieve
a fish would hit the fly. I tried several flies to
see if one of them would work better, but they all
seemed to do about the same. After I had drifted
down the length of the shore I would paddle back
to the other end of the pond and drift down the
shore again.
I was back at the end of the pond to start
another drift when the other guys got their
boat launched. The first thing they did was
to come up the pond and pull up right next
to me and want to know what I had caught and
what I was using. When I showed them the flies
they told me that this was "sissy fishing" and
they would show me how it was done.
I realized that they had been on an all night
party and that it was probably best if I left
the pond.
I decided to just drift down the shore and when
I got to the end of the pond take my leave. I had
caught another dozen or so fish when I heard the
motor start again. I looked over and saw that
they were headed in my direction. For some reason
I tied off my anchor to one of the thwarts on the
canoe.
When they came up to the canoe they slowed down
just a hair and then started pushing the canoe
toward the shore. My question as to why they were
doing this got a dumb reply, "nobody out fishes us."
I knew that this was not a good situation. When we
were about 8 to 10 feet from shore the canoe hit
a stump and flipped.
When I felt the canoe starting to go over I pushed
myself away from the canoe. I did manage to grab
the paddle as I went. I think that this sobered
the guys up a little, as they slowed down and
backed off from the canoe. I grabbed the canoe
and flipped it back over, quick enough that most
of the stuff was still in the canoe. The other
boat got close enough that I took a swing at one
of the guys with the paddle but just missed him.
I think my being wet, muddy and mad might have
scared them a little because they took off down
the pond. They loaded their boat quickly and took
off. They got away before I could get around the
pond to where they were at. I could not get boat
numbers as they were too faded and the truck was
too far away to see the licence plate numbers.
My only bit of luck in this whole thing was that
they pushed me up near one of the flattest places
around the pond. It took me the better part of
thirty minutes to bail out the canoe after I moved
all the stuff that was in the canoe onto the shore.
There is a lot of water in a 17 foot canoe that is
almost completely filled. This is one of the rare
days that I did not have a bucket in the truck with
me. When I could get the front end of the canoe up
onto the shore I could then use the paddle to toss
water out of the canoe. This made it go faster.
When the canoe was bailed out, I headed home to get
cleaned up. Also I was not ready to fish anymore.
I got home cleaned the fish I had and got cleaned
up. Just as I was done my wife called me and asked
me to go to the store and bring the things I got
over to the house where she was at.
When I got to the store, the truck that had been at
the pond was there with the boat still on behind it.
I knew that I had no way to prove what they had done,
but I wanted to teach an object lesson. I raised
the hood of the truck and loosened three spark plug
wires so they would not fire right. I also took the
plug out of the boat.
I was standing beside the truck when the two guys
came out. They had more beer with them. I told them
that if they ever did anything like that to me again
I would fix it so that they could not do anything for
a few months. I was told that there was no way that
I could prove that anything happened and that I could
do nothing about it.
I told them that I was not sure about that, but to
remember what I said. I hope that I never see them
again near any water. I also hope that you never
run into any folks that are as dumb and stupid as
these two.
Hope you can get out on the water: and have a good time.
~ Rick ziegeria@grm.net
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