Lucky catch in Hallowell

There are fish stories, and then there are fish stories to end all fish stories. It sounds like a morning where you're glad you got a chance to drink your coffee before all the excitement started.

ANGLER SAVES LIFE
BY SUSAN M. COVER
Staff Writer, Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel

HALLOWELL -- Bob Greene saved a man's life with his fishing pole early Thursday morning. Greene, 42, said he was drinking a cup of coffee and waiting for the sun to rise over the Kennebec River around 4:30 a.m. when he heard what he thought was a bird making noise in the distance.
...
He figures about 20 minutes passed.

Then he saw what he first thought was a log.

A second later, he realized it was a man bobbing down the river, and heard a faint call of "help."

Michael Gibbs, 25, of Augusta told police he jumped into the river from the Cushnoc Crossing bridge in Augusta -- a 114-foot high span commonly known as the third bridge.
...
Greene said his first instinct was to jump in -- he took his wallet out of his pocket just in case -- but a 911 dispatcher told him to throw something in to try to save Gibbs instead.

He set down his cell phone so he could cast his 7-foot spinning rod and Okuma reel with 25-pound line. It landed about 2 feet beyond Gibbs, who Greene estimated was about 35 yards from shore. The Chug Bug lure -- a 4-inch long lure with three small hooks on the end -- snagged Gibbs' shirt near his shoulder.

"It was a struggle to get him out of the current so I could reel him in," Greene said.

An experienced fisherman who makes fishing rods for a living, Greene said he knew he had to be careful not to snap the line.

"He had a pretty good hook on him and was slowly reeling him in when the officer arrived," [Hallowell Police Chief Eric] Nason said.

Click here to read the full story: [Source]

BREAKING NEWS: Casco Bay Bridge Activity

A slew of siren-laden vehicles rushed past our apartment this evening, just after 8:00pm. When they didn't let up, and fire trucks joined the police cars in the parade, we thought we'd see what was up.

We encountered the logjam of emergency vehicles at the intersection of Danforth and State Streets here in Portland, where they had the street blocked off down to where State and York Streets join at the base of the hill. Some of the fire trucks were departing, but several police and EMT vehicles remained on the lower part of the street. A few Portland Police Department cars suddenly appeared, heading across the Casco Bay Bridge, and we drove across in their wake.

Just past the control booth at the halfway point on the bridge, we saw a woman in a hot pink jogging suit jacket on the opposite side of the walkway than one expects to see people. She was hanging onto the wall with one arm as we drove past, and officers were approaching her on foot from their cars. (Let us also mention the High Weirdness of seeing a dark SUV pulled over on the southbound side of the bridge with the vanity plate "FNORD"!) On reaching the South Portland side of the bridge, we drove out through the marina to see if we could spot what was going on out over the water.

We were just in time to catch these shots, as officers, after joining her on the water side of the walkway wall, apparently convinced her to return to the land of the living. In this sequence of shots, you can identify the unknown person by her bright pink jacket, as she climbs back over the wall. Please click on the photo for a larger image.Since none of the news channels is on top of this story, we have no idea what happened. Conjecture is almost useless, but we wonder if someone who was involved with whatever happened on State Street ran from the scene in an effort to either escape, do away with themselves, or distract attention from the original scene. The coincidence of these two incidents occurring within clear walking distance from each other and almost simultaneously implies a connection. But what do we know? Just what we glimpse.

All photos by Michelle Souliere, (c)2008