Friday, my brother Kevin, friend Jay, and myself took the Sotar Raft out for whats looking like one of the last days before the rivers lock up for the winter.  With the temperatures in the low 20s overnight, we took our time in the morning as we assumed the river would be flowing with slush on the surface until it warmed up a bit.

Arriving at the put-in around 10:30, the river was slushing pretty bad, but with the boat it was still fishable.  Being in the boat, you can literally ‘cane pole’ drop your float in a hole between the slush, and let it go.   Without the boat, you would have to stand waist deep, freezing your nuts off, and only get a short drift.  In the boat, we were dropping the float in, floating along with the speed of the current, and getting maximum length drifts with minimal line out.   This reduced the freeze-up of your guides because you are not constantly reeling in wet line all the time.

So while packing up the boat, we threw in some snacks, a couple sandwiches, waters, and a few beers…  I grabbed a little beer cooler from the garage that had an assortment of beverages: a Budweiser, a couple Bud Light’s, a Miller, and this demon ‘Big Flats Premium Lager’.  Let me tell you a little about this “Big Flats”…  A 12 pack of it was left in the back of my truck after a 2011 Browns tailgate.  Curiously, myself and a few buddies had to try it, how bad could it be?  Possibly the nastiest beer I’ve ever had.  But one to not waste beer, I would always throw them in the cooler, or leave them in the bait fridge, and slowly one by one, some poor sap would drink one.  After a year and a few months, the 12 pack was finally down to 1, and I thought this day would be a good one to eliminate this demon…

So my dumb ass on the oars said, “OK, last guy to catch a fish has to drink the Big Flats”.  Not 2 minutes later Kevin hooks up and boats a nice buck.  And 5 minutes after that, Jay hooks into and boats another one.  I had hardly even had a chance.   I damn’ed myself for a half-hour or so, then finally cracked and choked down the last of the “Big Flats Premium Lager”.  To whoever was the mystery man who brought that 12 pack to my tailgate last year, please never do that again!  

Fishing was great this day, but the last Big Flats left far beyond a bitter taste in my mouth!  Great times anyways… 🙂