Precision rescue casts Sandy River fisherman as hero

[depakid]

Source: The Oregonian


Don Elder of Gresham used his spey-casting rod to help rescue three people from possibly drowning in the Sandy River on Sunday.
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Don Elder of Gresham didn't expect to catch anything Sunday afternoon when he waded through the crowd at Oxbow Regional Park and into the Sandy River to practice his fly-casting technique. But three people he pulled to the shoreline with a bright chartreuse and orange, salmon-strength class fly line are thankful he's getting better. Elder, 52, saved a man, his small sister and his fiancee from the Sandy's deep and numbing snowmelt-fed water about 2 p.m. Sunday as they were swept toward rapids near Buck Creek, upriver from Oxbow's boat ramp.

<snip>

Elder, an award-winning rivers advocate who is the director of major gifts for the Western Rivers Conservancy, said he and his wife, Michelle Kenney, spent the weekend camping near the park's boat ramp. He went upriver in the afternoon to practicing his casting but "without much hope of catching a fish."

"I heard screaming in the middle of the river," Elder said. "It took five or 10 seconds before I realized someone was in pretty desperate trouble. But what do you do first? Out in the middle of the river was a man clutching a very small girl. Between us in the water was a young woman. "I was wearing waders and boots, so it wasn't very practical to try to get to them. If I became part of the problem, it wouldn't help anyone. The only safe way was to bite off the fly, so I (bit off the leader), and before I realized what I was doing, I started casting to them."

Elder's first cast was to the woman between him and the man. She grabbed the line and he lowered his rod, "stripping" her in a bit -- making short tugs on the line -- as she held on and the current drew her toward the shoreline. By then, others had gathered and waded out to help her from the shallows.

Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/precision_rescue_casts_sandy_r.html

[Dervill Crow]

1. Wow. Just wow. So nice to read something this good.

:kick:

[Arctic Dave]

2. I would mount the rod in my living room with a picture of the poeple he saved.

It beats having them mounted. :D

[Historic NY]

3. gives new meaning to fishers of men.

[blue sky at night]

4. Hey thanks for the great story......

and fricking eh folks....stay the hell out of rivers until they slow down and warm up. AND WEAR A LIFE JACKET!!

[The River]

5. Good For Him

As a former guide and lifeguard he did everything right IMO.
The Sandy is a nice fishing / canoe river.
I ran it back in '97 with a local canoe club during
a cross country summer of running anything with water in it.
Nice people but they didn't know what to make of my
stand up / no paddle surf board style of running rapids.

[angstlessk]

6. need a few more rec's for others to read this uplifting story!

a :kick: for a good read!

[hootinholler]

7. "He kept saying 'Thank you, thank you,' then he passed out," Elder said.

Largely ignoring a bystander who mistakenly chided him for continuing to fish through the emergency ("Everyone else knew what I was trying to do; we laughed about it later," Elder said), and still in his waders and boots, Elder ran up the riverbank a couple of hundred yards to his campsite.

:rofl:

-Hoot