Marty's Drift
August 2005 |
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It feels as though I am charging through the summer. Time goes by so quickly. I used to think that as I got older things would slow down and mellow, but everything just seems to pick up speed, and there is never enough time to get things done. I can recall a day about 15 years ago, I was having lunch with my Dad and one of his old time hunting partners. My Dad said, “I don’t understand, Dan, it takes me twice as long to get things done now.” And Dan replied, “You have to remember, Marty, we’re only moving half as fast as we used to.” Like it or not, that’s the way life goes.
Whaler’s Cove Lodge, Angoon, Alaska |
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I’ve had fun so far this summer in spite of the hectic schedule. On July first Joyce and I flew to Juneau, Alaska on a sort of working vacation. Whaler’s Cove Lodge in Angoon is one of Joyce’s clients and we spent a week at the Lodge shooting photographs for future ads and next year’s newsletter.
Halibut, caught while being guided by Albert Howard, from the Tlingit village of Angoon. Most of the lodge’s guides and staff are from the village. |
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Small king salmon, just barely large enough to be legal. |
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Of course we were able to do some fishing, too. We caught halibut and trolled for salmon, but the most enjoyable fishing for me was the freshwater fishing for cutthroat and Dolly Varden. We fished in the tidal zone of small streams. I used a 4-weight rod, floating line and a variety of fly patterns, mostly fry imitations. Both cutts and Dollies were good fish, 13 to 23 inches.
Cutthroat from one of the freshwater streams near the lodge. |
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There were lots of Dolly Varden; this one is especially nice. |
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Just about as soon as I got home from Alaska, I left for a photo shoot in Wyoming and Idaho for our new ClackaCraft catalog. We did the majority of the shooting on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and on the South Fork of the Snake in Idaho.
Grand Tetons
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The photo shoot was a real learning experience for me. I knew you don’t get high quality photos by just going out and snapping photos, but I never realized how much behind the scenes work and preparation needs to be done to make a shoot go smoothly. It can get pretty complicated. John Lent and John Stenersen from the Idaho Falls retail outlet helped set things up.
Jeff Mishler shooting a cover shot |
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Jeff Mishler went with me to the McKenzie. Jeff is a photographer working on getting photos for our next catalog. We spent a couple days fishing and taking photos. On Sunday, as we approached the Greenwood ramp take out, we were told by anglers on the bank that they had witnessed a boat sinking just an hour before. We learned that the anchor on the boat had become stuck in fast water. As the boater tried to free or release the anchor, the transom of the boat was pulled under and within seconds the boat sank. It turned out that I had sold the boat a couple months earlier. When I talked with the customer, I found out that there had been a knot in the anchor rope so it couldn’t be allowed to slip through the anchor release. There was no sharp knife handy to cut the rope.
John Lent casting on the South Fork while Jeff Mishler rows. |
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Our shoot had a few bumps, but Jeff Mishler did a great job of getting new catalog shots. Many thanks to the volunteer models and boat rowers: Doug Best of the Jackson Orvis store, Alison Best of Mountain River Lanyards, Mike Hinman, Parker and Collette Stenersen, Jenn Seeley, Zack Dalton, Carrie, Jason Owens, Missy Evans, Kevin Eyruad, Shawn Lawson, and the staff at South Fork Lodge.
The Stenersen family on the South Fork.
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The volunteers on the Snake in Grand Teton National Park |
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We have some new things brewing at ClackaCraft. Two new boats are in the works. Last week I tested our new 12’ Drifter. This is a small two-person boat.
Drifter on a very low coastal river
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It is very light and glides through the shallowest of riffles. When I test rowed this boat it got through spots where a 12’ raft got hung up. The boat is designed to fit in the back of a standard long bed pick up truck and doesn’t need a trailer. It is light enough that two people can easily load and unload it, and it has enough interior room for one passenger, gear and a cooler.
The other boat in the works is a big 18 footer. This boat has an 18-foot centerline, with 20-foot gunwale length and 60 inch bottom. This boat has higher sides for big white water floating and a big load capacity for either four passengers or big cargoes. We will introduce the boat at the Fly Fishing Retailer Show in Denver in September.
ClackaCraft is now offering rowing instruction at our Clackamas, Oregon location. Call Bruce at 503-655-9532 for details. Don’t think it’s not possible to learn to row. After 23 years of being the passenger in our drift boat, Joyce has decided to start to row. Last week we started with some practice on a lake and the next day she rowed a five-mile drift solo on the Siletz River--and did great.
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