When we last talked, John Gray and I were headed to Little River to begin a stripe fishing expedition. You have to know John Gray to appreciate him. What he lacks in height, he makes up for in width, which is not a lot different from myself. Put it this way. I talked to my mom that morning to tell her we were going fishing. She said, “Do you think your canoe will float you two?” Come on mom, give us a break! We made it just fine.

Our good wives Laura and Penny followed us to the river so they could take our truck back to Cadiz Park. Therefore, we would have a vehicle waiting for us at the end of our journey. Understand this, the most treacherous time in a canoe trip is getting in and taking off. Our wives stayed to watch us launch. I think they were rooting for our success. Surely they would not have laughed if we had turned over. Anyway, we took off without a hitch. John and I stopped and fished at about four of my favorite spots as we canoed downstream.

It is at this point I must pose a question. By anyone’s account, John Gray is a really good person. He is a true gentleman. Hence the question. What makes such a nice guy turn trash talker just because he is catching fish? You see, John was catching five fish to my every one and he was letting me hear about it. “Hey Mike, I bet this looks like fun, doesn’t it? You know, I’m not counting, but if I was, the score would be 9 to 2.” John turned into a fish catching machine, human calculator and commentator all at the same time.

Little River may be one of the most under appreciated resources we have in Trigg County. As we continued to canoe, we saw a plethora of wildlife. We saw wild turkey, deer, fox squirrels galore, turtles, ducks, cranes and a coyote silhouetted on the top of a bluff. We canoed right past a snake in the water. Everything was going just fine until we looked ahead and saw that a tree had fallen and completely blocked the river. It is a common occurrence for trees to fall in the river. The water is full of them. This was different. There wasn’t anyway around it. It looked like a giant California Redwood from bank to bank. There was also about 25 feet of debris including small logs and limbs that had washed up against the so-called Redwood. We were presented with a difficult choice. One, we could attempt to paddle two and a half miles back upstream, fighting darkness and submerged logs the entire way. Two, we could attempt to take the canoe out of the water, up a nearly vertical slick mud bank, pull it though dense brush once on the bank till we got past the log jam. We chose option two. Tune in next week for the conclusion to the story.



Enthusiasm Makes the Difference Mike Wright is the head coach of boys basketball and cross country at Trigg County High School. Emails concerning Coach’s Corner can be sent to jmcgill@cadizrecord.com.