No sense of adventure? I got in the boat didn't I? Rocky failed to mention that Mark (albeit a small guy) brought another friend about my size, so we had about 800 lbs of flesh, 30 lbs of fishing tackle, a 50 lb outboard, and about 40 lbs of beer and ice in that 10 foot jon boat!
He also forgot to mention that the river was about 15 feet above flood stage and hauling the mail! The banks were muddy, slippery and steep, but we managed to get the boat down and in the water without going swimming (it was still early March).
Rocky got in first and straddled the middle seat, me in the back with the motor, and the other two guys in front. We literally had no more than 1" of sideboard all the way around the boat!
So we started the motor and shoved off.....ever so gently. The water was moving so fast that at full speed with that 2 hp motor, it took about 15 minutes to go 100 yards. Then the motor quit. Then we drifted right by our launch site at about mach II.
Once I got her fired up again it was about another 30 minutes back up river to the launch site. Now we're really on our way and starting to feel a bit more comfortable.
Then, without warning, Rocky swung his aft foot to the front of the boat so he could see better! The nose of the boat dove underwater like a submarine! The wet butts were on their way! "Rocky, put your foot back!" I yelled.
Whew! We were somehow still afloat, but with only 1/2" of sideboard now. So we did the obvious thing - cracked open beers and started chugging so we could use the empty cans to bail!
Finally about lunchtime, we made it about 1/4 mile up river to Mark's secret spot. But unfortunately, his spot was about 25 feet below the surface. Our lightweight sand bass tackle just swung up into the grass the second it hit the surface.
Plan was not working. So naturally, we loaded up the boat again and headed back downstream to our launch zone, which took us all of about 15 seconds to get there. Then we drove back to Mark's and drank ourselves into a stupor.
