Professional kayak fisherman and Shiloh High School graduate Drew Gregory will appear at the Atlanta Boat Show at the Georgia World Congress Center this weekend, including a seminar at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. He appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and the “Today” show after the viral fame of a YouTube video of a goose attack.
It was January 2010 in Florida, not the warmest time on the St. Mark’s River. I had a pole in the back of my kayak with a camera on it. I wanted to film to show my credibility, in hopes of landing a TV show.
The goose was a stray and seemed to be curious. It pecked at my kayak. It didn’t hiss, and I didn’t do anything to it.
It happened so fast that I didn’t know what was going on. It came at me out of nowhere. It was on my back and neck, trying to catch its footing, like it wanted a higher perch inside the kayak.
Nothing went through my head except: “Just get it off me.” In my attempt to flush it off me, the boat turned and I went in.
The video shows how upset I was in 60-degree water. I yelled, “What in the world, man? We were just friends. Why’d you do that?”
The goose answered me — it honked.
All my life I’ve fished. My dad took me to the Yellow River in Snellville. I also fished in Stone Mountain Lake, then continued fishing while at University of Georgia and for my master’s at Georgia State. I didn’t have much money for a bass boat, gas and upkeep, so kayak fishing was a perfect tool.
It’s more exercise, and you see a lot of secluded places. There’s no motor, so you can sneak up to see wildlife, like bald eagles.
I teamed up with Jackson Kayak and their top architect Tony Lee to develop the Coosa, a sit-on-top kayak with a wide hull for more stability. Our newest model, the Cuda, is for large bodies of water like Lake Lanier or the ocean.
After the attack, a geese expert said it was like a friendly dog on your leg at a party — the goose was trying to mate with me. That explained why the goose waited an hour and got upset. No one likes rejection, not even geese.
Since then, I’ve continued promoting kayaking all over the world. People want my autograph. I say, “Come on, I’m just a guy who took a risk to film my fishing trips.” I might have needed an extra break, and it happened because of a crazy goose.
-- Reported by Michelle Hiskey
