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The Russian River Fishing Trip of 1973 |
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Although I was somewhat of a fisherman as a child, as an adult, I didn't pursue it to any degree of regularity. Cory, on the other hand, is a pure fisherman. Belonging to Bass Masters and writing articles for Field and Stream, Cory has been very active in the fishing community around the country, and then some. I had gone to Cocoa Beach, Florida with him, Craig Marquette and Dennis Albro (a hometown schoolmate who was working with us) and went bass fishing on Lake Poinsett, in 1969 or 1970. A great trip, but there was a fishing trip that happened in 1973 that is worthy of mention. I'm not sure how it got started, but we planned a 3 day/2 night trip on the Russian River, around Healdsburg, California. Cory was especially interested in inviting Chuck to come along. Having been raised in Manhattan, Chuck accepted the invitation to do the camping and fishing thing, not having had these experiences, or so I assume. This was good. A time of bonding, away from the bandstand and our normal environment. There were 4 of us on the trip, Cory, Chuck, Jack Ryland and me. Jack and I rented a metal canoe from a river rental place called Trowbridge's. Cory brought his aluminum bass boat for him and Chuck. Most of the time, the river was slow-moving and fairly shallow. Perfect, really. Early into the trip, I heard Cory trashing himself for not opting for a canoe, instead of his boat. I'm speaking of the 2 times we hit sandbars and had to manually free ourselves with our oars. They did good, though, and we had a great time. They had a motor on their boat, but rarely used it, opting for oaring or drifting, as they fished. Cory was in his element and excited to have us all out there, "doing his thing" and so were we. Only once did we have to lift the boats out of the water, to walk them around a fall in the river. The first day on the river was spent getting our "chops" together with our respective crafts (canoe/bass boat). Great fun. Little Jackie took the point in our canoe. We had our tent and sleeping bags covered with a tarp in the middle of the canoe, to keep them dry in case of splashing water. Not being big beer drinkers, we still had some with us. We just put it in a garbage bag, secured to the canoe, then tossed it over the side and the river water kept it chilled. |
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Check us out below. Somehow, we just don't look like the outdoors type, especially me. |
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