by Ron Foster
Of course, my favorite though for bank or drift fishing with a boat is a Santee Rig or in this case a modified one What’s cool about a Santee Cooper rig is that you rig a stick float or bobber on it to hold your bait a foot or two off the bottom so you can fish that water column that seems to work better and produce better results sometimes.
“This one I got tied up here uses a piece of paracord filled with lead or steel shot to make it be basically snag less sinker and wiggle over the bottom.
I also got one rigged just like I do when I go Surf fishing with saltwater tackle but it catches catfish just the same.“ Zack said before going on to explain about the odd looking hooks and sizes he had on the lines and why he preferred the fisherman use these kind of hooks particularly if they were thinking of catching and releasing.
Please Use Circle Hooks
To conserve fisheries, many sport anglers now release the fish they catch. Using circle hooks instead of standard J-hooks can significantly reduce mortality. Experienced striped bass anglers find that baited circle hooks, because the point is turned inward, almost always hook fish in the lip or jaw. Points on J-hooks, in contrast, are more exposed and can lodge in the gills, throat or stomach—internal organs where injuries can be fatal.
Because of its design, you don’t need to “set” a circle hook as you would a J-hook; simply let the fish “take” the bait and then start reeling to get a hook-up. Many longtime anglers believe they actually catch more fish with circle hooks than J-hooks, once they’ve learned to use them properly.
The fish camp was filling with visitors and campers as the only official event scheduled was about to start.
Zack finally rounded up everyone for the big raffle ticket giveaway and was in the middle of his speech while thanking everyone for coming when the ground began to shake.
“What the hell?” Zack thought to himself as he felt the first tremble. “I didn’t drink that much last night for my knees to be wobbly and the heat ain’t bad enough to give me pause.” He was thinking before being pitched to the side and struggling to keep his balance.
The assembled guests were all siting around listening to the festivities when they were suddenly treated to the spectacle of Zack as he did his best Wizard of Oz scarecrow dance interpretation trying to regain his balance before they began feeling the full force of the awful shaking themselves. Some people were even pitched to the ground from their chairs as a low rumbling sound was heard.
Loud objections rang out suddenly on the Island and cries of “Oh Shit!” and “what the hell’s going on! Occurred before the momentary heaving ground stopped its vibrations. All eyes were now focused on the river and thoughts of, “is this island sinking?” occurred as everyone became bewildered and dismayed about what in the devil was going on before they braced once again as several aftershocks hit.
“What’s going on Zack? Why is the ground shaking so hard?” Ezra called out loudly while looking like he was doing a pole dance on his cane trying to keep his balance standing up.
Zack reached out his hand to steady the old war vet who was also having a time with his footing, tripped and they both went down in a heap together on the ground.
“Earthquake!” Rachel shrilled as the panicky participants of this apocalyptic venue looked on in horror as the once placid waters of the river began to churn and roll like a battleships wake was heading towards the shore.
“Head for high ground fast!” Nick yelled as he and Knobby grabbed their fat-tired bikes off the tree they were leaning against and started to race further inland before dropping them to the ground in order to stop to help some of the older less agile ladies in the group make it up the hill to safety.
It was mass confusion, pandemonium, mayhem and panic before everyone figured out the river wasn’t actually going to tsunami and wash them all off of the shore.
Sloan jumped up on one of the long concrete tables after handing his wife off to Mack to get her to safety and began hollering and directing folks to head for the high side of the island and up towards the town of Spectre as a herd of panicked bleating goats came racing by.
Brent was momentarily frozen with indecision as he eyed the plastic kayaks lining the shore straining their mooring lines wanting to be swept downstream before thinking good judgement was the better part of valor and helping some of the older overweight campers get out of their chairs and start moving faster further inland. Rescuing boats was one thing, beaching the whales was another he figured and although there was some humor in the way he thought about what to do next he didn’t smile or joke as he took decisive action.
Mack had his hands full shuttling his wife and young daughter along with Sloan’s wife towards the rise of ground where their tent was pitched before looking back to see about the herd of people moving in his direction like frightened animals fleeing a forest fire. Then all went silent for a moment as people gradually realized they weren’t fixing to be drowned like Pharaoh’s Army when Moses parted the Red Sea.
“Keep on moving! Don’t stop Yet! No telling if this was just merely a warning of what’s to come!” Zack called out as Parker raced by him pulling a Kayak behind him that he had miraculously rescued by its bow rope and was now pulling and towing it along the ground like he was the lead sled dog in the Alaska Iditarod Race!
“Go back and try to grab that other one Brent!” Parker said momentarily stopping and fearfully eying the receding water like he was thinking about jumping in the kayak he had in hand and maybe paddling it up the hill. Evidently, he knew or had heard something about the fact that when water recedes it comes back with a vengeance like what happened in deadly coastal tsunamis in Thailand and Indonesia.
Zack and Ann meantime where only pausing just long enough to be grabbing their heavy ass bug out bags out of their tent quickly before struggling up the hill themselves. The did so cursing that they had not thought to load them lighter for a fast get away should one be needed. They had pretty much heavy handedly loaded them to the gills with everything imaginable thinking that they would have plenty of time to lighten them up later if they ever actually had to hump them any distance. They were greatly relieved when Ezra came racing up the hill in his truck and told them to throw in the packs and jump on.
Evidently, he had not panicked and kept his wits about him because he had jumped in his truck rather than try to do a hobbling cane race up the hill and was driving through the woods barely dodging trees and helping others by picking up stragglers along the way.
Zack had got in the back of the bed of the truck and was sticking out a helping hand to anyone who wanted to get on as Sloan knowing his wife was already evacuated safely looked like he was doing the airborne shuffle run up the beach road chasing Nick and Knobby on their bikes headed to the RV camp.
There were other campers besides the ones that were attending the event doing a mass exodus at the same time and Sloan stopped momentarily to yell at them to get inland and not worry about dangerously risking salvaging any camping gear that close to shore before joining the herd heading for higher ground.
Now some folks might not believe me that goats can climb trees but it was evidently true as their instincts took over and they found the highest places they could get on top of on this island including stacks of firewood, trucks, leaning trees, picnic tables, and movie set window sills in the town of Spectre as everyone waited to see what was next in this watery apocalypse.
Mass confusion, young and old women crying, kids screaming, goats bleating, men shouting, everybody tree hugging tightly as general despair took over watching as the river made huge waves do a couple laps around the island before finally settling down to the point where there was just the heavy sloshing of waves hitting the shore like spent boat wakes to be seen and heard.
The strong stench of urine and feces along with river mud made itself apparent as evidently it was too much for the goats and some people as they evacuated their bowels in fear before the eerie calm took over. Nothing more happened as the heavy
sound of the river lapping the shore line occurred and people were momentarily silenced trying to figure out for themselves what had just happened.
“Somebody needs to go check out the causeway!” Sloan remarked looking off in the distance.
“I am on it!” Ezra declared and didn’t wait for Donna and Rachel to get out the back of his truck before him speeding off in that direction.
Zack tried to holler at him to wait up and that he still had passengers in the back of his truck hanging on for dear life but the man wasn’t paying anyone any attention. He was on a mission and Zack was left standing there watching the show and cussing him as he took off in a rush with his passenger door still hanging half open momentarily.
When Ezra quickly got to the narrow causeway leading to the island he noted the road was filling up fast from its center and he guesstimate what he hoped wasn’t more than a foot or two of water and gunned the truck much to the dismay of Donna and Rachel who were bouncing around in the bed of his truck as he went through the turbid water all the way to the other side.
“He was getting the hell off this island and he had made it!” Ezra mused.
It was only then that he saw his disheveled and bruised passengers and offered his utmost apologies for their discomforts and their minor injuries from being bounced and battered around.
Nobody knew it then, but his reckless pedal to the metal suicidal looking mad dash to push through that water would help save a lot of lives later.
“Are you crazy or didn’t your momma teach you any better!” an angry spluttering Donna said to the surprised Ezra as he finally noted he had passengers.
“If I wasn’t so sore, I would kick your ass!” A thoroughly sodden Rachel yelled complaining of the dousing she and her friend had gotten from the waves of water he had thrown up when ploughing through that low spot on the road leading into the island.
“I’m sorry ladies! You ok? I didn’t even look back or know I still had any riders! I can’t offer you all a towel but I got some of my clean shirts you can dry off with.” Said a beside himself apologetic Ezra.
“Who you think you are? That Andie Granatelli race car driver? That pot holed washboard road leading in here was bad enough but you stopping long enough to race your engine before charging down the bridge over the causeway was too much!” Donna said wanting to hit him once or twice for the thrill seeker like maneuver he had risked.
“Well I can take both of you back over to the island and you can ride in the cab this time.” Ezra weakly offered.
“Oh, hell no! I ain’t ever going riding with you again!” Rachel remarked looking at him hotly.
“Now what? They are on that side and we are on this one.” Donna said studying the rising waters.
“I guess we sit here and think on it a bit.” Ezra offered lamely.
“I still think we should kick your ass!” Rachel griped now separated from the group and her gear but still pretty much half ass happy she was not still stuck on that apparently sinking island anymore.
“Let’s go and see what Bobby has to say about this disaster. I would like to get his take on things.” Donna remarked and they tried to make themselves a bit more presentable before walking up to the island owners’ house.
.
2
Wayward Son
“Where the hell is Ezra? He should have been back here by now with a report on the causeway conditions.” Zack said worriedly eying the road towards the camps entrance.
‘We will go see about him!” Nick and Knobby said mounting their bikes to pedal down that way and see the causeway for themselves.
“Looks like we have lost about a good 10 or 20 feet of island shoreline so far that’s under a couple feet of water.” Parker remarked having did a short recon and studying the shoreline.
“Well is the water rising or is it receding at the moment in your estimation? That big wave that come in pulled itself back into the river as best I could tell.” Mack asked
“Hard to say, but I think the water is still inching in higher pretty good it looks like to me.” Parker responded
“Let’s get everyone to move all their gear and vehicles over to the town of Spectre, that seems about the highest point we got on this island and figure out what’s next. Damn good thing we had that Sea Eagle dingy dragged up safe over here for the raffle giveaway or the river would have swept it away. That is our new lifeboat and our best means of getting folks off the island now.” Zack said eying the inflatable craft set up at the ghost trees at the entrance to the movie set town that may well be their only lifeline not counting the two plastic Kayaks.
“Cheryl where in the hell did you come from? You ok?” Ann asked seeing their friend coming over to talk to her and Zack.
“I came up here today for the drawing about an hour ago and parked up by the town to feed the goats a treat first and then walked down to your fish camp. I brought along my Sea Eagle inflatable Kayak by the way it’s in my car’s trunk.” Cheryl advised.
“Well that’s damn sure a positive note. Look stay here while I go get my van and get Brent to help you inflate it. We might need it pretty quick. “Zack responded.
“Ok. But It would be a lot quicker to inflate it if you could lend me your electric pump.” Cheryl asked.
“Just get it out and start manual pumping it up for now. let me go make sure my vans safe and if it is, I will be back soon and you can use it if I don’t have any problems. I was sort of parked close to the water and I don’t know how my vehicle or a couple others parked by me fared, I am betting that Earl’s Jeep might have took a swim by the way or could be it is half submerged because he was parked right butt up on the bank.” Zack stated looking around for his friend who was nowhere to be seen at the moment.
Earl when he arrived on the island had just backed up to a tree and hung his hammock from one end the the jeeps roll bar to the trunk and had been sleeping like that camping out under the sky ever since they had been here.,
“I saw him and Smitty run off in that direction a few minutes ago. I will go check on him” Sarah said and went with her husband to go check on them and the status of the communication van.
“Damn! I forgot all about the communications van. You see Rod anywhere about?” Zack asked.
“I passed him in a get up the hill hurry as he was trying to run up to here with the rest of the campers earlier. He made it up here safe alright. Rod just couldn’t move near as fast as me but I haven’t seen him since. “Mack’s wife Sarah said standing next to her daughter watching the mass confusion going on.
“He is probably down there working with Franklin and the HAM radios; they need to drag that thing up here or salvage the batteries and solar panels off it if the water managed to bog that trailer down to the point that they can’t just pull it out with that big wrecker looking truck Franklin has. I sure hope they can stay on air; hey I am a dumbass, hell I can check my car radio to hear what’s happened maybe.” Zack said going to turn it on as the leftover attendees from the camp followed him.
“Shit I got zilch, nothing but static? Who else has got a vehicle with a working non satellite radio up here?” Zack said looking around before walking over to Ezra’s truck.
“You getting anything but static on your radio?” Zack asked.
“Nope, just lots of intense static. Can a solar storm affect water like that? That was awful lot of water! I don’t have any phone service neither.” Ezra replied.
“That would be a new one on me, it’s a geomagnetic anomaly so maybe. Hell, I don’t know. If power shuts off, I suppose the dam gates might auto failsafe and open. Something big just happened that’s for sure…” Zack said speculating.
“Com van is ok; we got some kind of hell of geomagnetic disturbance going on though. Can’t get doodley doo on the radios that we can understand a word of, might just be a magnetic storm, we will give it an hour or two and try again. Everyone is breaking camp and moving their vehicles up this way in the meantime, anything else you can think
for us to do?” Rod asked.