Don Elder of Gresham, Oregon stood the test of spey casting under pressure on the Sandy River, east of Portland. Mr. Elder was in Oxbow Park practicing his spey casting as the river was running high, off color and with low prospects of meeting a Summer run steelhead. As Elder was casting he heard screaming and soon became aware that a man was floating down the river hanging onto a small child and nearby was a woman also being carried down river. Elder immediately loaded and positioned a cast to the woman. She grabbed the line and Elder slowly worked her via careful retrieves toward shore. Bystanders helped remove the woman from the river.
The man and child were further down river now, so Elder hustled down river to intercept the man and child. He again successfully placed a cast, this time to the man holding the small child. Elder pulled the man and child in far enough that they were brought to safety. Ironically, some (there is always one) witness thought poorly of Elder. Why would he continue to fish while people were drowning?
Now Elder was not done. In full fly fishing regalia, Elder ran to his car and hopped in alarming his wife (standard repository of fly fisherman’s wife, usually reading or snoozing). He quickly drove to the park headquarters to request assistance for the people pulled or retrieved, so to speak, from the river.
High water/runoff dangers abound for rafters, boaters and waders. Don Elder is a hero to those three folks, the bystanders and now to us.
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