Most fishermen have knack for big-fish storytelling

You are not considered a good fisherman until you learn to tell a good story about your accomplishments with our scaly friend. Good story tellers are sought at every tournament and on docks and weigh-ins. Besides fishing for eighty plus years I have been around fishermen all my life. I won the state championship in Oklahoma at each year that the coaches' tourney was held and I heard a lot of good big fish stories during those years. I have fished and also written stories of many pro fishing tourneys for over thirty years and heard a few dozen more then. I have acted as tournament director, weigh in master and about all the other jobs that are needed done at tourneys so it goes without saying that I have been around long enough to hear good fish stories and also recognize a master story teller when I hear one. Most of my good stories have come from people who for the most part are telling the truth that always makes it better. My older brother Duke was the manager of the R.E.A. co-op in Dodge City Kansas shortly after the big war ended. I was in college at the time and my brother got me a summer job with an engineering company that was doing work for the R E.A. I staked the line out and supervised the construction of the electric line being built to bring electricity to the farms and ranches. The people who set the poles and laid the wire were employees of the coop. They had a huge dirt drill that drilled holes for the big poles to be set in. A man had to work close to the big spinning screw to knock dirt from it when it was in the air and spewing the dug dirt. You could get pretty dirty doing that job an especially if it was bringing up mud. One day the man doing that job was almost covered with mud. He had mud in his eyes, nose, mouth and from head to foot. Ever one got a big laugh out of that and since it was almost quitting time he went to the nearby creek to bathe. He and his partner rode in a pickup so they were left to clean up. It was after dark when they came home and we heard one of the best fish stories ever. It seems that when they got into the creek to bathe one of them found a big under hole in the creek bank. When he felt inside the hole he felt a fish. He called his buddy and they worked the fish out. The buddy had brought a long piece of wire used for electrical lines and they slipped it in to the fish's mouth and on out its gill. They then got out of the creek and wrestled and pulled the big catfish ashore. They were sure that it weighed more than eighty pounds. They came to town, and went by the R.E.A. office where they cleaned and cut up the fish and put in the freezer with the pheasant, quail, ducks, geese, rabbits and squirrels that the men stored each year for a big family feed for all the employees and board members and invited guests. It was always the highlight of the year for the co-op. Everyone looked forward to it. I talked to my Brother about the big fish story and we both agreed that it did hold water. I had "noodled" some of the rivers and knew that big catfish did indeed seek cut out holes under the banks of the rivers and that they could be taken by hand. What I did not believe is that a catfish of that size could come from a creek of that size. It just wasn't big enough for a fish that size there is a small town that we drove through each day on the way to the line we were building. They had a small but beautiful park and in that park they ha a giant fish pond with a huge catfish in it. One of the eaters who came to the party was a constable in the small town and was also a board member of the R.E.A. board of directors. He told us that the big fish turned up missing a few days back and a two hundred dollar reward was offered for information about it. My brother did not let on but we knew at once that our doubts about the "creek catfish" were correct that fish did not come from any creek. I never heard any more about the fish. It would be hard to prove so I guess the investigation died a quick death. I didn't eat any fish at the feed, quail and pheasant are good. One of my favorite stories was picked up several years ago when I was on the lake acting as weigh master for the Huntington Fire Dept. tourney. Billy told about a neighbor inviting him over to fish a pond. The man's five-year-old boy chased grasshoppers that were used as bait. Several four pound Bass were caught. Ely moved and it was some twenty five years later that he saw the now thirty year old boy again. The youngster told him that his mother had gone to the pond and caught an eight pound Bass which she froze and showed it to friends for years. Ely asked to see it and the boy said that his mother had given it to a nearby family after showing it for ten years and they had eaten it.

The White Perch have began their move upstream. The first move each winter is into the rivers and major creeks or at least set up on the banks of the streams. During the month of January the perch move to the streams and during the month of February they move northward and spawn in the shallows just out of streams. The Perch are hungry and will hit both jigs and minnows during the run and while nesting. Most of the fish caught during the nesting period will be the male Perch while the female will feed as she comes off the nest in late March. Even though the lake is some five feet below level it won't hurt fishing.

Buckle Up, Drive with Care, Put on a Life Jacket and I'll See You on the Lake.