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Monday, June 09, 2003     Page: 2B

Andy Kobela was jostled and wind-blown as he rode in the bed of a pickup to
the wild and remote Rideau Lakes in eastern Ontario.
   
That was almost 50 years ago, when times were different, when three guys
could loaf in the back of a pickup for a trip of a few hundred miles without
attracting the state police or Royal Canadian Mounties.
    The Nuangola angler and outdoorsman was just a kid then, a tough young
buck, and the whole affair was a grand adventure.
   
It was also an experience that may have been injurious, a journey that may
have ended in tragedy.
   
“I was only 16 years old when we drove to Canada, to the Rideau. There was
six of us in the pickup, three in front and three in back,” Kobela explained.
   
The gang was going fishing. After walleye. In Canada. They had heard tales
of the big marble-eyed fish that lurked in the deep, cold waters north of the
border, and nothing could stop them. Nothing.
   
“We slept in an old army tent and used 14-foot canoes with 15-horsepower
engines that leaked like crazy. Every time we went out we was up to our ankles
in water. Every time,” he said.
   
Kobela and the crew followed the advice of their guides.
   
“They told us to take only one rod and the plugs we was going to use. No
lights, no flashlights.
   
“The guides said lights scare the walleyes,” he recalled.
   
Following a father’s advice
   
The guide motored the canoe to within 100 yards of the fishing spot, then
paddled the rest of the way – as not to scare the walleyes.
   
They fished throughout the night, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
   
“We caught walleyes in the 10-pound class. We didn’t have a stringer. We
hit them on the head with a billy and tossed them under the seats in the
water,” Kobela said.
   
It wasn’t until they were returning to camp that two elements grew
conspicuous in their absence.
   
“There was no lights on the boat, and no life preservers.
   
“Things were different then, and we were in Canada,” he said.
   
Things soon got real intriguing on the dark water.
   
“We heard a loud `BOOM’ and two guys cursing, screaming, yelling. One boat
ran into the other broadside. Nobody got hurt though,” Kobela said.
   
He managed to survive the trip, the ride home and about 50 more short years
of outdoors pursuits.
   
A tough young buck no more, Kobela enjoys his fly fishing, likes catching
bluegills, and would welcome someone to hunt with.
   
“All my hunting buddies are dead. My father always said, `If you have
nobody to hunt with, stay out of the woods.’
   
“We could start a club and call ourselves the `Short Timers’ because our
time is short,” he said.
   
Kobela is not looking for a clubhouse, or anything formal.
   
He simply wants a buddy, a reliable hunting partner.
   
Someone to go to the woods with, someone to help put a shoulder to a heavy
whitetail, someone to be close if something happened.
   
After 50 years of tramping the woods and waters, it truly doesn’t seem to
be too much to ask.
   
Smith can be reached at 829-7230 or at [email protected].