A funny thing happened on the way...

[Ol Smoke]

This was 1992 and I was fishing with a guy in the regional Bass Tournaments.  We were heading toward Idaho to fish a tournament there.

We had made it to Idaho when we had a flat tire on the van.  Luckily there was a large turn out on the freeway for us to use.  So I got out

the jack and got the old tire off and Steve got the spare out.  But, it turned out the spare was for his truck not the van, and it would not fit.

 

So here we are on the side of the road trying to get some help, when a pickup stops.  They take Steve and the flat tire to a gas station about

10 miles down the road.  So I am sitting there with nothing to do, when I see that there is a very small pond that had filled during a recent

rain they had.  It was just a depression by the side of the road that had filled with water.  So I grabbed one of my roads and went down over the

side of the road, to the pond. 

 

I started practicing my pitching technique with a jig I had tied on.  Now I was fully visible to the road, so I can be seen by the passing cars.

I heard a vehicle coming up behind me and I heard the engine slow.  Then I heard them braking, and I saw them pull off in front of our van.

Two guys got out of the truck and started walking back to me.  They were pulling a Bass Boat also.  When they got to the van they yelled down

at me,  "How are they biting?"   I replied, "Kinda tight lipped today".  We all laughed a little.  Then they asked if they could help, so I told them

what was happening.  The one guy knew Steve and so he took off to the gas station to retrieve Steve and the tire.  Me and the other guy we

talked for a minute.  Then he talked me out of another pole and the two of us started pitching into the pond and talking Bass fishing.

 

I asked him if he was thirsty and so we broke a couple of beers out of the cooler.  So then we got tired of pitching and grabbed the two coolers

Steve and I had, and we sat them down by the pond and just discussed the world.  Just then we heard another car start slowing down and

it pulled in front of the van.  It was a white Chevy car, so we didn't know who it was.   The next thing I see, is a state trooper getting out of this

unmarked patrol car, and walking toward us.

 

Good afternoon fellas, he said.  Hi, we replied.  Ya'll know it's illegal to drink alcohol along side a road, don't you?   "No, I didn't know" we said.

Well, here in Idaho it is.  I don't know about Oregon, but here it is illegal.  By the way, he said, do you have an Idaho fishing license?  I looked

at him and said, we aren't fishing.  He looked at us and replied, "Well, I see two fishing poles, with baits, being cast into that trough of water there"

That constitutes fishing to me.  So we tried to explain what we were doing and he just wasn't buying it.  So he took out his ticket pad and was

acting like he was going to write us up for open container, illegal drinking in public, illegal fishing, no license, etc etc.

 

Me and the other guy looked at each other and thought, what the shit is going on here?  Then I saw a grin on the Trooper.  So I started to grin,

and then he started to chuckle.   Well, it turned out he was going to be fishing the same tournament as we were.  He was heading back to the

cop shop to end his work day, and then gather his stuff up to go to the lake.  The tournament was the next day.  We saw the trooper there before

we put in and we all had a good laugh.  Then he told us, that everything he told us,  was  true !

 

The tournament turned out to be good for me and Steve and we took home some money and a 2nd place trophy.  The trooper didn't place at all.

So when we headed for home on Sunday, we obeyed all the rules until we got back to Oregon.

 

Steve and I talked about stuff on the way home and when we passed that place again, I began to wonder about what other people thought about

us "fishing" there by the side of the road, with a bass boat on the back of the van.  We laughed about that for years.

 

Steve and I finished 5th in the all around regional division.  We were only 6 ounces from winning 4th place.  Which would have sent us to the

nationals in Texas.  To fish against the top four guys from each region (6) would have been great.  Especially on Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

 

Good times, man,  Good times.

[HELLFIRE]

Nice story