Saturday, September 23, 2006

Did You Hear About The Time I Went Fishing With Grandpa Brown?

Archie Brown was a city boy most of the year. But every summer his family would take a vacation to his father, Orel's, family's farm in Arkansas. Archie loved all the things he got to do, even the chores that were so distasteful to his country cousins.

But what he loved most was going fishing and hunting. On one occasion, when Arch was 14, he and his grandfather went fishing in the rice canal that irrigated the rice fields that provided the living for the family. They had a nice afternoon, talking and catching a few fish.

Archie was using a jitterbug lure. It was supposed to look like a frog, it had one trebble hook on the bottom, with another on the end. On one cast, Archie had a strike unlike any other he had ever experienced. His rod bent severely and Archie had a real fight on his hands as he reeled in his catch! But he was not expecting what he found.

There were two fish on the lure, each a bass that weighed a little over a pound. One was caught on the hook on bottom and the other on the posterior hook! They had struck simultaneously and really given Archie a battle royal.

When Archie and his grandpa finished, they stopped by his Uncle Winkie's to tell the story and show off the fish. After listening to the story, Uncle Winkie told one of his own. He said that once he was fishing with a worm on a single straight hook. When he got a bite, he reeled in two catfish. He said that the first one had swallowed the hook through its gills and the second bit the hook behind the first, thus not allowing the first to wriggle free!

Archie learned that day not to be the first to tell a fish story, even if it is true, becasue there will always be someone with a bigger fish story than yours!