Montana Woods N Water August 2016 Print Edition | Page 20

TONY REBO UNLEASHED

“How High Is The Water Momma?”
By Tony Rebo
An old tune from Johnny Cash reminded me of an experience I had two weeks ago on the Clark Fork River. I
am willing to share my experience in order to save someone else from beaching their boat. Oh yeah that
caught your attention! I didn’t actually beach the boat, but ended up with my boat sitting on the shore line
beached. The Clark Fork will fluctuate through the day and will drop up to 6 feet in a short time period.
We were camping down at Finley Flats and I was out fishing in the heat of the day. I returned to the shore
about 4:30 wanting to take a break and have some supper before I returned to the river for an evening fishing
trip. I had landed in the boat 6 pike that afternoon as the heat seemed to have no effect on the feeding fish. I
was anxious to get back on the river thinking that the cooling evening temperature would be welcoming. I enjoyed a nice BBQ and a cold
refreshing drink as I shared my earlier fishing adventure. At 6:00 I returned to my boat and was surprised to find it sitting on bare ground.
The river had dropped and left several boats sitting high and dry. Panic spread through the campground and soon there were several
fishermen standing on the bank surveying the situation.
Now the site of several boats valued at several thousands of dollars sitting on the ground was just more than some could take. At first I
thought I was surrounded by a group of intoxicated sailors. I am pretty sure I heard words that were just made up, but then again I heard
things that would make a sailor blush. It seemed this display of cursing was contagious and it spread up and down the shoreline with each
person trying to out curse the other. I felt obligated to join in and sounded off with my own cursing fit. Within seconds I felt the blow to the
back of my head as my wife appeared from the shadows. As I was falling to the ground in slow motion I remember thinking “how did I miss
the she lion lying in the tall grass waiting for me to screw up”.
Thank goodness for my wife and her ability to keep me from doing or saying something that I would later regret. She has the ability to
always catch me just before I say something I shouldn’t. A perfect example of this is when I get the paw to the side of the head before I
even say something. As my eyes are watering and I am trying to regain
the feeling back to my face, she will have stated “I know what you
were thinking and you better not say it”.
I am amazed at her mind reading ability, and there are times when I
haven’t even thought of the bad thought when I receive the blow and
the stern warning not to think the bad thought. I know mind blowing.
Anyway as I regained consciousness on the bank of the river, I noticed
several of the cursing fishermen move away from my position and the
cursing stopped. Now the focus was on getting the boats back into the
water. Several guys would grab a boat and pull it from the shore line
back to the water, and that worked well with all the small boats.
Several boats were much too large to muscle back to the water and
would remain beached until the water came back up. This was the
case with my boat. I stood on the bank and paced back and forth
trying to come up with a solution to getting it back into the water so I
could resume the great fishing that was before me. To no avail could I
get that boat back in the water. I would just have to wait for the river
to come back up, and that was all there was to it. I of course chose to
wait in the boat so I would be the first one out on the water and
fishing. The she lion shook her head as if that was a dumb idea and
walked back into the tall grass. Good thing to as I was just about to let
her know who the king of the jungle was. Continued on page 19.

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