I had been anticipating my trip to Atlanta for weeks.  I was taking my brand new Arrow Backpacker with me for the sole purpose to float the Hooch over the weekend and use the boat for the first time.  I went out and got a bag that would hold the boat and all of my fishing gear and still be under the weight limit for Delta.  This bag had been packed two weeks before the actual trip.  The journey to Atlanta went smooth and all of my gear made it with no problems.

The day came for the maiden voyage of the USS PD.  The weather was perfect but the water was a little muddy.  As I put together my Arrow Backpacker Pontoon Boat and started to inflate the tubes I was surprised to hear a hiss coming from one of the pontoons.  After waiting an hour for the useless patch kit that came with the boat to work I decided to head down the river anyway.  This proved to be a miserable decision.  I kept the attachment connected to the valve of the pontoon and used my air pump to keep filling the pontoon as I floated.  The K-Pump turned out to be the best investment that I made for the trip.  I worked this way for several miles down the river and it was not that bad to deal with.

As we got closer to the out take out point we approached some shoals about 200 yards up river.  As we approached looking for the best line things started to get a little hairy being on top of the pontoon.  I got through the first few areas and then the frame on the pontoon broke in two places!  Luckily I was not in deep water and I was able to keep everything together.  We were now dead in the water 150 yards away from the truck.  My buddy and I negotiated our way to what we thought was the shore.  There is a running trail that is in the park and we would use that to make our way back to the parking lot.  As we climbed the hill of the shore that we got up on we soon realized that we were on a small island.  We had to then go down the back side, cross the river again, and climb another hill.  All this while towing the broken pontoon boat.  Each pontoon is 8' long so it is not something easy to trek around in.  Not to mention fly rods, another tube, and oars.  We hauled the boat back to the parking lot with several breaks in between.  What a day!

I returned the Arrow Backpacker not even thinking about another pontoon boat and decided to go with a Fish Cat Float Tube and fins.  Stay tuned for the next episode.

So after a miserable day on the water with no fish and plenty of problems this was truly an Adventure on the Fly!

I did return to the Cochran Shoals area of the Hooch on Saturday for some redemption and I did get it in the form of three nice rainbows in a short hour of fishing. 

See You Next Episode!