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The Water Cooler
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Last time your child made you proud.
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<blockquote data-quote="badrinker" data-source="post: 3585721" data-attributes="member: 3822"><p>Well a few pertinent details before getting into the story: Remember the weather, snowed north of us, locally heavy rain New Years Eve. I'm a poor swimmer. We always wear PFDs while in the boat,, but take them off prior to shooting, as they get in the way. My son and I absolutely love duck hunting, and last year was a very poor year.</p><p></p><p>With the snow north of us, we hoped it would push some ducks down on the river, so even though the water was up and absolutely rolling (full trees were uprooted and floating down!) we hoped to finally shoot ducks. We set up at the mouth of an oxbow (basically a creek dumping into the main channel) that we had hunted numerous times before. Normally it's only a couple of feet deep, but with all the rain we had to set the decoys from the boat.</p><p></p><p>So, legal shooting time comes, and we find every time a limb comes floating down the oxbow, it tries to take a decoy or 2 with it out into the channel, so we were carefully taking turns wading out, generally to nearly the top of our waders, and retrieving them, tossing them back upstream. Temperature are mid-thirties, not bad for New Years.</p><p></p><p>So, we're watching the skies for ducks that never materialized, when a barge came down the river. Barges displace so much water, they always suck decoys out towards the channel. We knew if they went out in the main river, with the way it was rolling, we would potentially lose them. So, I jumped up and started wading out, as I had previously, to try and catch them. My son, being smarter than I, headed for the boat, which is beached 75 yards up the oxbow. I'm wading slowly, carefully placing my feet so I don't step in a hole, but what I didn't count on was the increased current from the barge! It suddenly sweeps my feet out from under me, now I'm out in the channel (20+ ft deep), my waders are full of water and I'm desperately trying to keep my head above water! I try yelling for my son, but mostly just trying to not drown, but I'm tiring fast, swimming (or flailing) with waders full of water is very difficult. </p><p></p><p>Suddenly my son pulls up along side of me with the boat (he had the presence of mind to come in at a reasonable speed, so he didn't swamp me). I clamp on to the side of the boat with what strength I had left and he drags me to dry ground. Then he tosses me the dry bag we keep in the boat and I pull on dry clothes. Meanwhile, he quickly picks up all our gear (decoys, guns, bags and blind netting). By the time I get changed, he's back, with a dry blanket out to wrap me up in. He then drives us back to the ramp (having to pass the damn barge on the way!)</p><p></p><p>There's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have made it without him.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="badrinker, post: 3585721, member: 3822"] Well a few pertinent details before getting into the story: Remember the weather, snowed north of us, locally heavy rain New Years Eve. I'm a poor swimmer. We always wear PFDs while in the boat,, but take them off prior to shooting, as they get in the way. My son and I absolutely love duck hunting, and last year was a very poor year. With the snow north of us, we hoped it would push some ducks down on the river, so even though the water was up and absolutely rolling (full trees were uprooted and floating down!) we hoped to finally shoot ducks. We set up at the mouth of an oxbow (basically a creek dumping into the main channel) that we had hunted numerous times before. Normally it's only a couple of feet deep, but with all the rain we had to set the decoys from the boat. So, legal shooting time comes, and we find every time a limb comes floating down the oxbow, it tries to take a decoy or 2 with it out into the channel, so we were carefully taking turns wading out, generally to nearly the top of our waders, and retrieving them, tossing them back upstream. Temperature are mid-thirties, not bad for New Years. So, we're watching the skies for ducks that never materialized, when a barge came down the river. Barges displace so much water, they always suck decoys out towards the channel. We knew if they went out in the main river, with the way it was rolling, we would potentially lose them. So, I jumped up and started wading out, as I had previously, to try and catch them. My son, being smarter than I, headed for the boat, which is beached 75 yards up the oxbow. I'm wading slowly, carefully placing my feet so I don't step in a hole, but what I didn't count on was the increased current from the barge! It suddenly sweeps my feet out from under me, now I'm out in the channel (20+ ft deep), my waders are full of water and I'm desperately trying to keep my head above water! I try yelling for my son, but mostly just trying to not drown, but I'm tiring fast, swimming (or flailing) with waders full of water is very difficult. Suddenly my son pulls up along side of me with the boat (he had the presence of mind to come in at a reasonable speed, so he didn't swamp me). I clamp on to the side of the boat with what strength I had left and he drags me to dry ground. Then he tosses me the dry bag we keep in the boat and I pull on dry clothes. Meanwhile, he quickly picks up all our gear (decoys, guns, bags and blind netting). By the time I get changed, he's back, with a dry blanket out to wrap me up in. He then drives us back to the ramp (having to pass the damn barge on the way!) There's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have made it without him. [/QUOTE]
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