Something special.....

MrGrumpFish
MrGrumpFish
Hey guys,

I have been on this forum for a bit now and I know it is the best fishing forum out there, for many of my own reasons. I have read a lot of interesting and informative threads here, written by some great members. The forum remains classy all the time and bickering never goes very far here. Even when I'm involved... LoL! Long story short, you can only be on here for a bit before you start private messaging people for tips and advice etc. Recently I received a PM and was surprised for the reason why. I quiet little tip on a river that seems to always be fishy, followed up with an invite to go on someones boat that I had yet to even meet or talk to much. Since I had never been in a drift boat, I jumped at the opportunity! I found out a couple days later that a fourth person was on board and that we now had a full boat. So the trip was planned and I was super excited. We were off to the Wilson to float from Mills Bridge down to Sollie Smith, with plenty of stops on the way down.

For simplicity of my post I will use screen names only to protect the innocent. Kidding...

I was first PM'd by Hooked Up (Hans), with the tip and the second with the invite, saying he was heading out for a drift with EOBOY, (Dana) on his drift boat. After I committed to going, Hans informed me that pinstriper (Mark), would be onboard as well. I was nervous to go fishing and on a boat at that, with people I had never met before and my wife of course gave me all the online warnings about what happens to some people when they meet in person with "friends" online. I told her not to worry, that these guys are fisherman and almost all fisherman are great people. (I have met some jerks out there, both on the bank and in boats), but this was worlds away from that. As it turned out, all four of us were within a few short miles of each other so I met for the first time, and picked up Hans at his house that happened to be very near me. He and I then drove to Dana's place, where Mark met us all and the trip was on.

The three of us enjoyed a great conversation while following Dana to Mills Bridge where we launched his boat. I then followed Dana down to Sollie Smith to drop his truck and trailer off there and head back to Mills where we arrive to see Hans with his line in the water already. can't say I blame him for that. I would have! We geared up and started our float. Dana did a great job on the sticks for being newer to it and I still can't thank him enough for letting a guy like me on his boat. :D About a quarter of the way in to the trip Mark hooked a nice cut throat that almost jumped into the boat and needless to say this got all of us excited for the steel that never came as the water was only just too chalky and a bit too swift to have any real success as low as we were in the river. I think the guys that went in above Mills did a little better but not by much. It was a slow day for sure. So many conversations are had on a boat, and in this case even with 4 perfect strangers until that day. I find it pretty amazing and very special that you can come to a community like this, meet three guys you have never met before and take a trip like this and have as much fun as we did. We all pretty much instantly hit it off and had a blast, fish or no fish. We all agreed that it is as much about the fishing and our time together as much as it was catching anything. What a great sunday! One of the best in recent memory for me.

I will finish by saying I feel like I have three great new friends and that is a gift I hope more people get to enjoy here and everywhere else for that matter. Nobody did anything wrong, no one was there correcting anyone or judging their techniques or strategy, we were just fishing and swapping stories and there were so many to tell. If pictures are worth a thousand words then these are worth millions to me.

Thank you Hans for getting me Hooked Up with Dana and also making it possible to meet yet another great Yankees fan. Mark is the Yankees fan every fan wishes he could be. A wealth of knowledge about baseball. Im sure there is another huge conversation in the pipeline there!

Thanks again Hans, Dana, and Mark for a very enjoyable day. My life is a bit more rich with friends like you guys and I look forward to many more trips like this one.

.....and no, I don't know why some cell phone pictures post sideways! :sad: Save photo and rotate to view if It bothers you?:lol:

Cheers,

Chris
 
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Reactions: plumbertom
Raincatcher
Raincatcher
Thanks for sharing a great story of a great experience with great new friends. Love hearing this kind of tale. :thumb:
 
T
TimberTodd
That is fantastic! Sorry the fish were not more cooperative, but it sounds like a stellar day anyway.
 
troutdude
troutdude
Fantastic thread. Thanks for sharing. Glad that y'all had fun!
 
P
pinstriper
And as always, The Rookie outfished them all !!

Seriously, I was composing something similar in my mind, but would not have done it justice. It was a great trip with great guys. And Dana had been the first to jump in an OFFer a fishing trip a year ago when I first came on here with no knowledge at all. I'm glad I finally took him up it!
 
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B
BaldTexan
Sounds like a fun trip to me. Nice write up. You can never have too many fishing buddies!
 
EOBOY
EOBOY
I have to say for not catching fish I don't think I'v laughed so much in a long time. Went today with Tanner, Roger and the Masta. The water was lower, and I was lucky tackling the river that high being the new guy on the sticks. We all have to do it again real soon.:popcorn:
 
Troutski
Troutski
Sweet...

Sweet...

Oregon Fishing Forum at its best... Thanks for sharing...!

Chuck
 
hobster
hobster
Raincatcher said:
Thanks for sharing a great story of a great experience with great new friends. Love hearing this kind of tale. :thumb:

Indeed. This is s cool place, i have fished with quite a few people on here, some of them don't post much anymore but i still see them on the river and we are still friends thanks to OFF. Glad you guys got to hook up, it's always fun to meet another forum member and realize they are a real person. :lol: Good people, good forum! This makes me happy.:)
 
Hooked Up
Hooked Up
Wonderful write up Chris! We definitely had quite a few laughs on that trip. Can't wait to do it again!
 

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