Our infiltration of a corrupt hog line….

Posted: August 29, 2010 by Hellcat in Fish Reports




MME, Seth “The Commander” Watson (brand new to AAA) and myself took to an early morning of anchor set-up on the Big River in MME’s 16′ Alumaweld drift boat. Equipped with a 9.9hp Honda kicker and my ‘anchor in a tub’ buoy system with 300′ of rope we were off to my favorite spot to wobbler fish in the middle river.

Rolling out in such a small boat we decided to leave well ahead of the tide rolling. 3 hours to be exact. We figured that we had better get to the line early since the sleds will have all the advantage setting up.

So we did arrive very early and were the 3rd boat out of close to 100 in the mile of river we had a visual on. In our line we were third. The anchoring was relatively simple but holding MME’s flat bottom drift boat in 3 foot chop with a strong west wind shooting straight up our ass proved to be a taxing chore on our beloved captain, Matt the Metal Enforcer.

Matt wasn’t too excited to have a big 25′ sled pull up next to us….anchor…..drop back….while grumbling and grimmacing about how high we were in the line. Out of courtesy, I moved down another 60′.

Beyond that he’d just have to deal with us looking down at him. We found out soon enough that we had slid into a hog line of boats where every single person knew each other and was on a first name basis. Husbands knew wives, dudes were squirting water guns at other dudes in the line and all was honky and dory in the corrupt hog line of Barnies, Daryls and Jim Bobs.

It was clear at that time that “Grimmace” or “Richard” as we later came to know him from his friends….was the silent leader of this honry bunch. He was also just pissed because we beat him to his own spot in a driftboat. We held our groud with Richard and all his mean-mugging. The Commander and I told Matt to stop looking at him but he could not help himself.

Matt couldn’t understand why this guy wouldn’t come out from behind his windshield and say something like a man. I simply told him to take a look at this dudes old lady and imagine that naked every day. “You’d be pissed, too” I told him. Alas jokes did not work on Matt and he was determined to be bound up until Richard would leave the hog line.

Which, as the sherriff was checking the line, is exactly what he did. He left. I told him I was sorry to have inconvenienced him as he rolled out. He grunted that I was there first and that he would leave. I was grateful MME did not attempt to jump into Richard’s boat. I breathed a sigh of relief for the first time that morning.

Not 30 minutes after he left….the infiltrating drift boat hooked up on my first fall chinook of the season. It came on a custom-taped Alvin wobbler that when combining both chartreuse and green tape next to each other on a chrome body looks ‘gold’ when it’s swinging and catches any light what-so-ever. And that’s important when you’re bouncing in 50′ of water.

You can watch a snippet of my fish as it is lost at the boat as I lift it to be netted. Old Fred back in the line made sure to ammuse himself with verbal poking and prodding about how I lost the fish due to hastiness and tight drag. I just nodded and smiled and said “well consider me educated.”

This fish was one of only 4 to be hooked in our line. We watch a guide named ‘Loren’ in a red sled get ‘aced’ with two Japaness business men clients in his boat….looking like they had eaten bad sushi.

Soon Richard came back and begin to partake in the water gun festivities. He anchored away from us so we didn’t have to watch him grimmace and mumble. He was much happier now that he could be back in control….jovially joking with all his buddies wives and girlfriends.

In all seriousness though….the waves coming up river turned into small mountains and MME’s boat was taking on water with every lap against the back of the motor.

His long shaft motor was pinned in reverse to hold the line while easily clearing the water with every swell. Prop chop hit me in the face in rythym until we pulled the plug ten minutes later.

I’m quite certain that “Dick” was happy to see us go. Creepy bastard.



Tips up unless you need them down. Cheers.

Comments
  1. blazed says:

    Great post & vid H3llcat.

    I’ve been in that type of situation earlier this year, anchored next to a Dick on a line sturgeon fishing, but only his name wasn’t Richard.

  2. daheller says:

    Sounds like a little too much drama for me. That is cool that you hooked up on your first chinook of the young season. It kinda sounds like you may have been using a DD special modified weapon. Too bad you lost the fish right at the boat. Luckily there aren’t that many Richards out there. Good for Matt to hang in there and do the run in his drift boat. Sal

  3. DD says:

    not all of us out there are “dicks”….I would like to know what that boat looked like….Was it a big red thor-built with”N.W. Fishing guide”down the side?

  4. blazed says:

    DD, I don’t want to seem like a groupie, and feel awkward asking, but if you’d like to get some guide $’s and have the previously mentioned space…let me know. I let Heller know that i’d like to see how the pros are rollin, trollin, and hooking up the fall nooks.

    josh.

  5. Brent says:

    way to hold your ground karma will prevail

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