# Trip of a lifetime.....or not.



## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

My long time fishing buddy and best friend recently had a drift boat made and delivered to his house in Ohio. I asked him if he wanted to take it down to Tennessee for the inaugural trip and christening, but he decided to wait for a western stream. Being employed with the school system, he has the luxury of summers off; he makes an annual 6 week trip out west to fish the trophy waters of Montana ultimately fishing the Bighorn for a couple of weeks before heading back to Ohio.

Over some of his past trips, he has encountered some difficulties such as bearings on a trailer going out, tires going flat, lights malfunctioning, brakes needing replaced and even a emergency root canal. This year I believe tops them all and the trip has just started.

Two weeks before embarking on his adventure, he had his Jeep Cherokee looked over and the mechanic said unless he has his ball joints, tie rod ends and shocks replaced, most likely he will have a wheel fall off on his trip. $2,000 bucks later, he is now ready to get on the road and to haul his new $10K drift boat out to Montana. I was in the process of driving home from Tennessee from the long holiday this past Wednesday when my buddy gives me a shout informing me that while he was driving through a remote part of Iowa, his water pump went out. It was later in the evening when it happened, fortunately he was only 3 miles from a garage that could hopefully take care of the problem but would have to wait until the morning when they opened so he slept in the parking lot. The shop was able to fix the water pump, they had to get one from an auto-parts store about 20 miles away but by Thursday afternoon and another $350, he was back on the road. Thinking my buddy is now in the clear and finally going to get the boat on water, I get a call from him Friday afternoon as he is about 3 hours out of Billings Mt telling me that he has white smoke pouring out the back of his car and he literally watched his gas gauge move 1/4 of a tank in 5 miles.......bad news. Yup, my friend cooked the engine on his Jeep Cherokee and spent the rest of that day and Saturday looking for a new vehicle so that he could continue on his journey. $11,000 bucks later, he now is the owner of a used Ford Explorer and he finally made it to the Missouri river and launched his boat. I told him that maybe in the future, he should consider rivers a little closer to home but I doubt he will; I just wonder if anything else will go wrong on this trip.


----------



## zimmerj (Oct 17, 2014)

You know he has to make the drive back.


----------



## garhtr (Jan 12, 2009)

I wouldn't mind Fishing the Bighorn rv but There's a lot of good trout water between Ohio and Montana. Hope his trip provides some good Fishing and his return trip works out good.
How did the boat do ?? Still going to take it to Tenn soon ? 
I've always wanted to fish the Cumberland R from a drift boat, maybe someday I'll get a chance.
Good luck and Good Fishing !


----------



## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

My maiden voyage on my 16 ft Clackacraft ( about 20 years ago...) was on the Clinch, we floated from the ramp about 4-5 miles below the dam to the Rt 61 Bridge, they were calling for some current all day, we go down, get launched and waited for the generators to start running, we waited some more, then waited even longer as the phone charts said generation, but not a lick, lets just say we spent all day paddling as hard as we could only fished for about an hr as we got out about 2 hrs after dark, never saw a riser, nothing.. river was dead...LOL it was a long drive home that nite...that I do remember and me smashing into a big rock in my new to me boat on one of the 3 riffles in the stretch... I wish your buddy luck....maybe the fish gods will shine heavily in his favor...
Salmonid


----------



## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Salmonid, My buddy's favorite river's south of Ohio is the Clinch and the Hiwassee in that order. Of course since I have my place in Reliance, I lean more toward the Wass but I do love occasionally fishing the Clinch which can certainly be more technical at times. We floated both rivers many times in his old Hyde drift boat but we also opted to do so out of his canoe as well on other trips for the very reason you stated above. I have found that using the TVA website stays up to date and is more reliable than the phone method with the recording. (although I did like the sound of that Southern Belles' voice on that recording  The canoe made the trips easier, as we could start earlier in the day and maneuver around the rocks during low water. We would stop and wade the multitude of pools before the generation water ever reached us. Our entry point was the ramp at Peach Orchard and we would float down to Clinton below the jail house, it made for a nice long float trip to say the least. He finally parted with his Hyde and his new boat is the RO Deville, one heck of a drift boat and perhaps the nicest one I have ever seen. Garhtr, you can bet that we will get this boat on the Wass and the Clinch this fall once the DH season kicks in, certainly looking forward to it.

He texted my yesterday and this morning, the waters out west are still high due to the heavy volume of snow that fell this year but are fishing really well. He is fishing the Missouri right now, catching large amounts of good size fish, many ranging in the 18-20" length. He sent me a picture this morning with his shirt covered with Trico's said the spinner fall is unreal with fish just gorging themselves in swirling pools of these bugs. So it looks like the fish Gods are smiling on him now that he has his mechanical issues behind him.


----------



## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

Which type of "Cherokee" we talking about-the old boxy one or one of the grand Cherokee models? While those old boxy ones are getting old the AMC 4.0L engine in those things are virtually bulletproof. With that being said a cross country trip pulling a boat with a motor pushing 200k is asking for trouble


----------



## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

RiparianRanger said:


> With that being said a cross country trip pulling a boat with a motor pushing 200k is asking for trouble


Could not agree with you more, he had well in excess of 200K on the engine, it was a ticking time bomb in my opinion.


----------

