The fall colors were a beautiful highlight to the peaceful river while I watched in disbelief as my boat nonchalantly drifted away down the river.

Small Mouth bass are the fightenest fish that swims and I really enjoy the fight. Late one fall a few years ago I decided to go fishing by myself on the Wolf River in Shiocton. The SM bass sometimes filter through Shiocton in the fall and I wanted to see if I could find a few fish willing to bite.

I backed my boat into the river and the rope holding my boat to the trailer came off. My boat as mentioned above was drifting unmanned down the river. Not the first time for me. I am sure it has happened too many of us. Usually you ask someone in the area to help, the helper goes out in there boat, and they get your boat back for you. This time was different. There was no one else around to help, or to see how foolish I looked. I started to run along the bank to catch up to that renegade boat. As I ran by the cabins along that first straight away I knocked on several doors, but most are summer cabins, and all were empty. It was tempting to commandeer the one boat that was tied on a dock. I thought however, it might look just like cattle wrestling out West. Pirating boats might even be a hanging offence in Shiocton. It was starting to look like that boat was not coming home with me and I really liked that boat. Plan B was to run along the river awhile until my boat worked its way to shore. After several turns of the river my boat seemed to have a propensity to stay way out of reach. Plan C was up next. I took off my clothes and jumped in the river. The flaw in that plan was that when you jump in cold water you have a very difficult time breathing. When gasping for air, it is a lot harder than you might realize to climb into a boat. All of my energy was spent just swimming to the boat, getting back in the boat was a near impossible task. I struggled for quite a while before my tired body found a way to climb back in the boat. Another lesson learned the hard way. I rested for a long time, motored back up stream for my clothes, and went home fishless. It is certainly recommended that you do not attempt a boat rescue the way I did it. It seems not being able to get back in a boat is more common than I thought. I was lucky especially when, about a week later, I read in the newspaper about someone in southern Wisconsin who had tried something very similar to my plan but they drowned. For the record many new boats have a pull out ladder to assist climbing back in. In captains class we also learned what to do if you can not climb into a boat. Obtain a piece of rope or even tear clothes into strips to use as a rope. Then with one end secured to the boat, tie a loop in the rope. The loop can be used to use as a foot step to help climb back into the boat. This little trick could save a life.

-Randy Williams