From: On Behalf Of Jimmy D. Moore Subject: [VFB] QUOTE FOR THE DAY
" The fly angler who says they have never, ever fallen while wading , is either a pathogenic liar, or has never been fly fishing." Jimmy D Moore [Jerry Goldsmith] Amen Brother James. Thankfully I do not wade all that much, because I would have long ago either drowned or would have several broken leg bones. I fall almost every time I wade. Amazing. As Steve Davenport can attest, I have fallen in 3' of water with no rocks or structure anywhere near. Fortunately, I always bring a complete change of clothes so I can usually get back out there. I am thinking of adding a 2nd wading staff. No one would ever have accused me of being gazelle like to begin with, but I was a pretty decent hi school jock and skied and back- packed into my 50's. Radiation treatment for prostate cancer wiped out some nerve and muscle tissues about 8 years ago, and thus emerged "Jerry the Klutz". OTOH, I did beat the cancer, so on the Karmic side of things I came out a winner. My most spectacular wipeout came on a beach, not in a stream. I was casting a 9 wt on a beach in East Central Florida. A 9 wt is a little bit over kill for our typical surf fishing but there were schools of BIG JACKS running the beaches. And I hooked into one that was HUGE. In fact, I never saw the fish and suspect it may actually have been a Tarpon. As the fish was well into my backing and was screaming down the beach with the wind and the tide making his run that much easier. I had no choice but to pursue. GAME ON. It was actually quite thrilling for the 1st 30 yards or so. I was hollering at the top of my lungs as I took after the brute. Running down the beach about a foot out of the water, I came to a trough that extended well up the beach so I had no choice but to run through it. I was actually knee deep when I hit the big piece of drift wood ( half a damn tree) that had lodged itself in the sand and was completely covered by the sea. The water rushing over it had caused a pretty good washout on the opposite side. I went airborne when I hit the damn thing and landed in the hole behind where the water was chest deep ! It did soften the crash, but I was of course completely submerged. If I was wearing waders I would have been a goner. As it was me and my shorts , shirt and fanny pack, crawled our way out and got to the back to the beach. Casualties: 1. my shin and knee cap. 16 stitches in the shin. Weeks of physical Therapy. 2. The 9 wt T&T Horizon. When I finally got out of the water. all I had was the butt section and may be 3" of section 2. 3. A 9wt line and 250 yds of backing. 4. My pride. As is usually the case. I was actually laughing hysterically by the time I got back to my car. My only regret is that no one had a video. It was worth a million bucks on one of those TV shows. However, my all time favorite wipeout was performed by Steve Davenport. It was the first time I had fished the "Tuck" . ( in fact, it may have been the 1st time I waded a North Carolina Trout stream). The weather was quite beautiful and unseasonably warm for November. It was a 3 day trip and at the end of the 1st , Bill Murphy took pity on me and gave me his wading staff. On the 3rd day, I was significantly upstream from Steve and was getting ready to move to another spot and I realized that I had lost the wading staff. Almost simultaneously, I looked up to see Steve bending over to pick up the staff that drifted down stream to him. He did not stand up again for the next few minutes. Down he went in about thigh high water. His 1st attempt to rise was an immediate 360* spin that put him back in the water. His 2nd attempt was a 3 step forward tumble reverse twisting kerplunk that was rewarded by a 8.5 from even the Russian judge. His 3rd was an amazing duplication of the 2nd attempt except done backwards. Remarkable. Scores went up to 9.5 across the board. I won't further describe the 4th and 5th attempts because I am laughing so hard the tears in my eyes prevent me form further typing. We did not stop laughing until we hit KFC buffet on the way back to Atlanta. I have since fallen at least once on each trip of this annual outing. Steve has remained upright. JG
