Shift my work load from Friday to Saturday to take advantage of the fact that: 1) kids were home from school on Friday, and 2) spouse was heading to Terre Haute for Nona time.
So I put the canoe atop the Odyssey and pack up the gear. Vonne drops us off about 5 miles north of TH on the Wabash, and I steer with Jerry up front and the three girls in the middle (Vonne Mei paddling some).
Beautiful fall day, but still most of the trees haven't turned along the river, so we might go back for one more trek before winter.
Anyway, very quiet on river, as we're the only people there, and we are, at this one point, just floating along the right side in shallow waters, taking a beverage break.
Then I put my oar into the water for a stroke and out jumps this big fish in response. Maybe 18-20 inches and a solid 6 inches midrange in "height." In the instant I see it flying completely out of the water, my first thought is, that is one beautiful big fish.
Then the water surrounding us for about 15 yards on all sides erupts like a jaccuzzi and there are similarly sized fish jumping completely out of the water everywhere - maybe 50 or so. It is loud and chaotic and goes on for about 10 seconds as everybody seems to be frantic to escape our dreaded clutches. At several points I'm semi-deflecting fish about to jump into the boat (I know, later, I thought, hmmmm - dinner! But right then I was worried about us flipping this kayak-style canoe).
I have to tell you: I have canoed rivers for about 4 decades and I have never run into that one. We pretty much screamed throughout the whole thing, it was just so bizarre and unexpected on this otherwise uber-quiet journey.
But very cool. The fish were gorgeous and it was exciting to see all that action in such a short bit of time.
We talked about it for the rest of the journey down the Wabash.