A small yellow truck flashed bright red lights as it's fate was met in the mighty Chetco.
Down, down it floated, and sank, soon to be either fish scenery or a river touched new toy for a kiddo down stream.
Mr. F stared at the river, the permanence of the situation sinking into his young brain. It brought him back to a time last year when he was first at awe of the power of the river.
Luckily, as mom and dad fished away, in hopes of a magical salmon made even more magic by having Mr. F in the boat, Forrest had his other cars which he seemed to be very careful with.
Mr. Nomad was a favorite, and the family is happy to report it made it through the trip...
As Forrest clamored about in the boat, the sun was quickly setting in this November evening, as darkness was falling. The hopes of the mighty fish were sinking away in the sun as the parents began to make plans to give up for the night and row to the take out.
Mr. F started to get his toddler evening blues. His mama countered this by throwing his favorite gold fish crackers at him with lots of "JUS" (juice...) but the menacing toddler was gaining the edge.
His mama sighed, just happy to make it through the bulk of the afternoon dry and happy. She took in the scenery of the river, the beauty of the evening , and the triumph of at least TRYING to fish, and her lovely family.... and was content.
Suddenly.....
"BAM" the rod tip flew down.
"Zip, zip, ziiiiiiipppppppppppp" line flew out of the reel as something.....SOMETHING BIG.....took line.
"Fish on! That's it....wait....okay grab it....yes!" said the excited Dad.
Mama grabbed up the reel as Mr. F looked on at the fire drill. As his mom struggled with the fish, his dad quickly reeled up the other line and rowed to the bank.
This was truly a fish, a BIG fish.
The fight was on.
Mr. F watched in awe and also showed his excitement by dumping his goldfishie crackers all over the place. He figured they would help his mama fight on! His dad quickly contained him and stood ready with the net, but relaxed a bit when he realized the fish just kept taking line.
This was going to be a long fight....
His mama reeled and reeled, only to have the amazing salmon take more line. He left arm was fatiguing, but she kept at it, in hopes of achieving the goal.
"splash", "SPLASH", zip, ziiiip. This salmon was putting up a fight. The whole river was responding to the show. Other salmon rolled in the pool in the setting sun, ducks cruised by, Forrest yelled in the evening.
The miracle of nature at it's finest.
FINALLY, the amazing fish made it's appearance close to the bank. The exhausted mama held her breath as Dad scooped it with the net.
The goal had been met......
The rest of the night was filled with happy banter of the feat the family had accomplished. A 30 pound salmon had been caught! On top of Mr. F's dad's fish early that morning, this was truly looking like a great trip! Talk of the next morning ensued as the family considered a longer drift at dawn.
Could the feat be repeated? Was this too much?
Mr. F's mama thought about the evening. She just couldn't let another possibility go by could she? The trip had gone reasonable well, but they had only been fishing for less than two hours. This trip would be more like 4-6 hours,....hmmm.
It would be attempted, the family decided. Mr. F raced around the camp in the dark in the excitement. Dinner was being made, excellent drinks were being drunk, the mood was one of excitement. The headlamp Mr. F's parent had strapped to him as not to loose their son in the dark evening flashed brightly to and fro.
The excitement quickly turned to exhaustion as the night wore on. The thought of the 5:00 a.m. wake up drove the family to the tent.
They snuggled down, alarms set, for the night. Dreams of big fish, and the looming morning adventure filled their heads.
What WOULD the morning bring?
Stay tuned for Part III
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