Sean C. Morgan
When the chance is a million to one, whatever it is, it tends to work out.
At least, that’s the way it works on TV, in the books and in the movies.
That’s the way it worked in real life for Dave Wolfe and Leo Fernandez of Sweet Home.
No more, no less than one in a million. Then and only then is success in a difficult task guaranteed.
That’s how odds work according to the late Terry Pratchett, who wrote the fantasy comedy novel series “Discworld” and described the hero in one of the novels adjusting and making more difficult a shot he was about to take at the villain.
“What are the odds?” asked Leo Fernandez of Sweet Home after he caught his friend’s missing wallet two weeks after it was lost. He was fishing for salmon in the Siletz River upstream from the Highway 101 bridge along the coast, about 3 miles from the mouth.
“The odds were a million to one that could happen,” said his friend Robin Kutsch of Hawaii, who had been fishing with him that day.
Fernandez and his friends reached the threshold, and the seemingly impossible occurred.
On Oct. 2, Dave Wolfe of Sweet Home lost his wallet in the Siletz River while fishing with Kutsch.
On Oct. 15, Fernandez snagged the wallet while fishing in the same area with Wolfe, Kutsch and John Kunzman of Sweet Home.
“I was fishing in my drift boat,” Wolfe said. The swivel seat hangs out over the edge of the boat. Apparently, his wallet slipped out while he was seated there. He didn’t realize his wallet was missing until he went to get coffee.
He knew he had it when he got out of his pickup, so he tore apart his boat trying to find it. He couldn’t find it. They double checked and tore apart the pickup and camper too.
“We knew more than likely it went into the river,” Wolfe said. He hoped to catch sight of it floating, but no luck. It was gone, and he resigned himself to it.
Fortunately, he didn’t have any cash in the wallet, just some credit cards and an extra key for his boat.
The wallet wasn’t really on anyone’s mind when they went back to the area on Oct. 15. The four men were just going fishing.
Wolfe was off work, and Fernandez was on vacation. Both work at Georgia Pacific in Halsey.
“We weren’t even thinking about the wallet,” Fernandez said. “The chance of the wallet being in the same spot was little to none.”
From the time he lost the wallet to the time he was back on the river, there had been 48 tidal swings, Wolfe said. That’s a lot of current and turbulence in the water.
The river level fluctuates by about 5 feet, Fernandez said.
During the Oct. 2 trip, Wolfe figured there were a hundred boats packed onto the river. On Oct. 15, he estimated 60 to 70 boats were on the water.
It’s a popular fishing hole, he said.
“I have never fished this part of the river where we were going to,” Fernandez said. “I have seen it driving by there and watched people catch fish there but never fished in that area.”
Wolfe caught a coho, but “it was kind of slow into the morning,” Fernandez said. “So we switched to bobber and eggs. We were drifting through one area that they said was hot the week before. John hooked a nice 25-lb. salmon and we netted it.”
The four men were about 50 yards downstream when Leo said he had something on his line, Wolfe said. They thought it was a weed.
“I looked over and said, ‘That’s my wallet,’” Wolfe said.
“No way can that be your wallet,” Fernandez replied.
“No way you could have hooked Dave’s wallet,” Kunzman said. “That’s near impossible and unbelievable to do that.”
It had a tiny crab in it, apparently trying to make a meal out of the leather. The credit cards were gone somehow, but the boat key was still in its spot in the wallet.
The fishermen were astonished.
“Everything had to be so perfect,” Wolfe said. “It had to be the right depth. The hook was turned just right.”
They could have fished all day and never saw that wallet, he said.
Fishing with a bobber, they wanted the hook close to the bottom but not touching.
“I didn’t know it was that deep,” Fernandez said. “I didn’t know it was even dragging the bottom.”
Fernandez estimated 500 fishermen fished that area in between fishing trips.
“Just for the record, we had a nice weekend of fishing: one coho and two Chinook salmon.” Fernandez said.