SHAKEDOWN CRUISE

[TubeDude]

[cool]Hey Ron San, you got any idea how hard it is to get a pod of killer whales to swim upriver a thousand miles (including long dry stretches), up over dams and then to selectively harvest divers and PWC operators? I had also considered illegally stocking the lake with piranhas, but thought better of it. After all, there are times I fish without waders in there, and I wouldn't want 'em nibbling on my nether regions.

I mentioned the Hawaiian war canoe. That's no joke. Last year, almost every Saturday on the one lake, a pair of these long canoes would show up in the cove my wife and I float tube. It is inside a "no wake" buoy zone, and we often fish inside a "no boat" area. But these bad boys launch from the beach and race out and back through us like we weren't even there. They have actually bounced off our craft with their outriggers and come close to smacking us with their flailing paddles. The worst are the women's teams. They go like $&##, but ain't too good at aiming. These are the Hawaiian verson of PWC.

Here's a pic I snapped in terror last year, during a close encounter. Note Tube Babe (Mrs Dude) on the other side of the canoe.


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