Last Saturday morning, my buddy Bo Warren and I were
trolling for stripers in Chesapeake Bay.
We were 1½ miles offshore in about 80 feet of water
contemplating why the fish weren't biting. We looked
back to check our gear and saw something odd in the water.
Was it a seal?
Can't be, we don't have seals around here. On closer
inspection it turned out to be a deer that was WAY off
course.
He was desperate and barely staying afloat. I've seen deer
swim a river or bayou before. When you see that, the first
thing you notice is that they are powerful swimmers.
Their head and shoulders are out of the water and they make
surprisingly good headway.
This critter was just barely keeping his nose up and
looked like he'd been swimming all night . In fact, he was
so worn out that he swam toward the boat probably thinking
it looked like a place to land.
When he got closer though, he wasn't sure what to make of
the dudes on board so he backed off. Since the fish weren't
biting anyway we decided to try and give this buck a hand.
Turns out Bo grew up around cows and was really handy with
the bowline.
He lassoed the deer on the first throw!
Bo grabbed his neck, I grabbed the flank, and we barrelled
over backwards into the boat.
Before I knew it, Bo was on top of him and had him tied up
just like a calf.
We hit the gas and ran him to the closest beach - Kent Point
I beached the boat and we carefully unloaded the deer onto
the sand.
The whole time we kept thinking he was going to kick the
hell out of us. He never did though, he was totally spent.
We
untied him and jumped back. Too weak to stand, he just sat
there quivering.
We even picked him up again and put his feet underneath him,
but he still couldn't walk.
Don't know if he made it or not, but I'm sure his chances
were vastly improved.
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