So, Jared called me last week, asking if I wanted to go fishing. I’ve known Jared for 25 years or more, ever since he was a teenager. Funny thing is that I used to fish with his dad, now I fish with him.
“What do you have in mind?” I asked hesitantly—his idea of a fun day of fishing is often a lot different than mine. I was once like him, young and filled with fly fishing hype, drinking the Kool-Aid by the gallon. I still like to fly fish, but for me it has always been A way to fish, not THE way to fish. And I almost always prefer to fish from a boat that is powered by something other than oars.
His response was “How about we do float trip with my raft?”
“A raft? A raft. You want me to fish from a raft. Who are you, Huckleberry Finn? 
You do know that I have two boats- complete with motors-that don’t get used enough as it is? “
He was persistent, “We could float down the Rapid River, it has a bunch of smallmouth and muskies.” I had been to this river, was not impressed. “No. What else have you got?”
“How about floating the Pine?” Hmmm, that sounded a little more interesting. “What do you know about it?” Turns out he hadn’t been there yet, but had some good intel that the section we would fish was off the radar and had a bunch of smallmouth, and maybe muskies. “No access other than carry-in, so the raft is perfect.” I was tempted. I had had heard some decent reports over the years about this river, somehow never made it there. It was a little father than I wanted to go for a day trip, but I gave in.
We Google Earthed potential put-ins and take-outs and decided on a nice 6-mile section of river. I was concerned about water level, “I do not want to end up dragging a raft down 6 miles of river”.
“No worries”, he said, “the level is well above average for this time of year”.
“I’ve got kayaks. We could take kayaks.”
“You’ll like the raft. Everyone likes the raft.”
“Alright, you be Huck, I’ll be Jim.”
Saturday morning found me heading east into a rising sun. Jared had wanted to meet at 8, I insisted on 7. Exploratory trips often take longer than anticipated.
The signs of autumn were starting; a few maple and ash trees were showing their fall colors as the morning fog gave way to weak sun. I was at the meeting place first, a spot where the road came close to the river and it was where we would take out. The river was close, and I took a look over the edge of the drop that led to the river. It was a sheer drop of about 8 feet that evened out into a tangle of brush and mud. 
There would be no way to get up or down that hill, even without a raft. I soon found a path that skirted the bad spot, it would still be tricky but plenty doable. Jared showed up and we loaded what little gear I brought into his truck that had his raft strapped in the back.
We drove up to the put-in, and it was easy enough to carry the raft and gear about 50 yards to the river. Jared was gathering a few last items from the truck so I took the opportunity to get something tied on a favorite rod. The rod in question was a short, 6-foot baitcaster that is super fun to cast. It is light but strong, and allows for very accurate one-handed casting of hard baits like topwaters and crankbaits. I had seen a couple of leopard frogs in the grass and rocks along the river bank, and I chuckled as I tied on the only topwater in the small tackle box I had brought– a frog pattern Chug Bug. 
Match the hatch, right? Another rod was a heavy spinning rod for fishing a jerk-shad, and I also brought a muskie rod. My muskie tackle box consisted of one spinnerbait roaming in my tackle bag. I made a test cast off the bank. A cool thing about fishing rivers is that once you learn how to catch fish in one river you can catch them in any river, as rivers have a way of behaving the same way, and creating similar spots. Everything about this river looked fishy, but I threw to the fishiest looking part of the pool where the current came in. The bait didn’t go 10 feet before a nice smallmouth ate it. Jared got back as I hoisted the 17-incher. “They’re heeeeere!” I said.
We shoved off, Jared at the oars, me armed with a Chug Bug. To say the fishing was good would be an understatement. Almost every fishy spot produced a fish, and there was really no reason to try anything other than the topwater lure. I made the decision to not bring a fly rod since this was an exploratory trip, probably should have brought an eight weight, as those smallmouth would have torn up a cork popper. 
We came into a bend that was deeper and slower than the riffle water above, it looked like as likely a place for a muskie as anywhere so I started straining the water with the big spinnerbait. There were some tasty looking logjams at the top which produced a nice pike. The heart of the deep bend produced nothing, but as the water got shallower at the bottom I ended up with a small but spirited muskie on the line. The ten-pounder got off pretty quick which was fine by me. At least it showed that there were muskies in there. I guess it should have been no surprise, as all other rivers in the area are known for the long fish. 
I gave Jared a break from rowing and watched him froth the water with first a big fly on his ten weight, then a big muskie lure on a heavy muskie rod. The smallmouth liked both of these enough that he switched over to his eight weight with a flashy streamer. The gold flashabou looked just right to me in the whisky colored water, and the smallmouth thought so too. One time a big pike tried to take away one of Jared’s fish, he let it go before too much damage could be done. 
After a bit Jared took over the rowing duties and generously rowed the rest of the way, allowing me to continue the Chug Bug clinic. 
One time I went to unhook a fish and I found something strange—the front treble was gone, but somehow the fish was “hooked” on the split ring that was still there. How this could have happened I can’t imagine. And I had to use a pliers to get the split ring out of the fish as it had gone in a half turn. A deer crossed the river just in front of us once, and a Cooper’s Hawk kept us company for a while. We agreed that the whole area was very squatchy.
It was a fun day, one of the best of the summer. The raft really was perfect for this venue, it floated through just few inches of water, it was easy to maneuver, and was very stable. I also like the fact that we were able to load it into my truck at the take-out, cutting down on shuttle hassles. There’s no way I’m buying a raft…but there’s also no way I’d pass on an offer to make another float in Jared’s.
You can get in touch with Jared at https://www.fishingdoggs.com/