Fun [s]paddle[/s] swim on Willamette

Let's see how many potential problems I ignored today to do a bit of yak fishing....

beautiful, wind-free day....good
learning new fishing equipment and technique...always good
dressed for water temp not air...check

paddling solo...personally preferred but...

Willamette river running high, fast, and brown....not so good
rental kayak (SINK) designed for calm, flat water...not so good
kayak not providing much freeboard with me in it...hmmmm
Joe's sent their PFD's back so none with rental...duh!

1o minutes into the paddle, getting lure out into the water, I turned look over shoulder and began taking on water, fast. Rather than tip the yak and lose all my gear, I decided to take a bath in the middle of the channel. Saved all the gear and began towing yak to shore. Oops, the river is about 3-5 feet higher than usual, no real shore. I found an opening between trees and dragged my soggy bottom and yak onto the mud. Looked back at yak and noticed my rod and reel fell out somewhere while swimming...darn. I drained my waders and took a few minutes to catch my breath.

Time to paddle upstream and back across to the launch. I decided to stick close to shore to minimize current. Paddled as hard as I could for 10 minutes, caught an eddy and my breath, then continued like this 3 or 4 times. I finally got upstream of the launch a bit and took off across the river. 

Lessons learned....many. Luckily, only rod and reel lost. I stayed warm eventhough soaked completely.

Stay safe,
Jay

Yikes!

oh man, glad you're ok. Most important part, lessons learned!

Z