Nautical Adventures
Scott Mclean
It’s almost June and that brings back summertime memories.
I have one acquaintance who spent summers cruising around Lake Washington on a 40 foot boat, which to me at the time would classify as a yacht.
My Dad’s older sister, Joyce and family lived on the river in Pasco. They had a ski boat docked at the house and a cabin cruiser at a Richland marina. Prior to them moving down there, we met them at Rimrock to spend time on the smaller cruiser they had then. It became stormy and the water was rough and it was raining so hard that we were told to keep inside. It was a quick turnaround to the dock.
Our yacht was somewhat humbler. We had a war surplus seven man raft from Sarge Hubbards. Propulsion was two or if you were in a hurry, three paddles.
Dad picked up a motor somewhere that was older than the raft. All silvery metal with the old style pull rope you had to wrap around by hand with every pull. A knot would go in a notch to keep it from slipping. It never made it to the raft because Dad was never able to get it to run over about 30 seconds. No yacht club invitations for us!
We used it on numerous lakes like Milk, Clear, Dog, Burke, and Goose. The most frequent trips were the Naches or Yakima rivers. We did well on both and in those days you could keep and eat trout from the Yakima.
Here is the start of a typical trip. The day before we would go by Van Cleave’s which is where Yakima battery is now. The items looked for there were Indiana spinners. Also size 8 and some 6’s of Eagle Claw hooks.
If the folks were feeling wealthy we would buy some night crawlers there or from an old woman on 24th. More often, we were at Lion’s park or my Great Aunt’s place hunting them by flashlight.
I knelt in dog crap once and had to try to wash it in a sprinkler. I ended up riding home in the back of the truck.
Two vehicles were always involved. One was left at the bridge on South Naches road or at the Roza recreation area.
Before we had a truck, the raft and hand powered air pumps were hauled to Wilson Creek or the Naches Wonderland bridge. Everyone traded off pumping until it was filled. Once we had a truck, it was aired up at home with the exhaust from a vacuum and tied to the truck.
At the end of the float you opened the valves and squeezed out as much air as you could.
Someone would drive the vehicle left there to deliver a driver to the other vehicle.
Mom would pack up pop and make sandwiches. I remember her getting a dry bag that the proprietor of Sarge Hubbards told her would keep lunches and such dry. It didn’t and I can’t recommend sandwiches and Hostess Ding Dongs soaked in river water. I hope the fish enjoyed them!
We caught some nice trout on these trips and enjoyed eating them.
Safety was observed in that Dad made sure we kids wore life jackets until we reached a certain age.
One trip on the Yakima did not include me but I heard the tale many times. The folks were evidently floating the river with Dad’s cousin when Mom hooked what they thought was a monster trout. It kept stripping line from the reel and I’m sure Dad was shouting instructions to her. She couldn’t get it to the raft and when they got to a shallow stretch I guess Dad’s cousin jumped out of the raft to go net it. When he got to it, he found that she had not hooked a big trout. She had somehow snagged a large squaw fish in the tail which is why she couldn’t head it. Dad recounted that story many times.
I remember hearing chukar and sometimes rattlesnakes when we got near the banks on the railroad side of the river.
Between the late night nightcrawler hunts and usually 4am wake ups, we were tired when we got home.
For years, Mom would dump the leftover crawlers on the lawn with no apparent success. Then all of a sudden one year, they realized the yard was full of bumps from the night crawlers. I eventually bought them a worm shocker from Bi-Mart and you could pick up dozens in broad daylight. Mom would put coffee grounds in with the worms. Not sure why. Maybe to keep them active and alert while fishing? Probably goes with the corn meal dumped in the water with live clams!
I have many great memories of these times. Steve and I always enjoyed getting out at Roza. When near shore, Dad would allow us to jump out and splash our way to dry land. On hot days we splashed a little longer.
These days, people are paying pretty good money to be guided down the river in boats that are far above what our humble yellow raft was. Buy the deluxe package and you get a gourmet shore lunch. Still have to watch for rattlers!
Now there is even a nice restaurant and hotel for the visiting anglers.
I’ll stay proud that I’m from the soggy sandwich and kept trout era.
Bye now.