Well, it’s fishing season and I love – well, loved – to fish at one time in my life. I can’t any longer because I can’t hold a rod with the shaking of my hands, and I certainly can’t put a lure on, or get a fish off. I can’t do much of anything anymore except just remember some very good times.
I loved my first experience fishing with my wife. Her mother and dad had a nice place in the country. It had a couple of good stock tanks and there were some pretty good fish in those tanks. So, I grab my rod and reel and my tackle box that was full of lures.
I go down and started fishing, and fishing, and fishing, with no luck whatsoever. I had been down there for about an hour and my wife shows up and she’s got a little bitty rod that could almost pass as a cane pole. It was a “nothing” rod and not anything like my fancy stuff. She takes this thing and was just pitching it out.
So, what happens? She catches a fish, and another fish, and then another. I finally went over to her and said, “What in the world are you fishing with anyway?” She said, “A weenie.” I said, “Weenie? Fish don’t eat weenies!” She said, “Well, these do. That’s all they’ve ever had.”
So, I let it go a little while longer, and the count was about 10 fish to none in her favor, and I finally walked over to her again and said, “Give me a weenie!”
I also remember fishing with my then young son. I had the fancy stuff and he had a Snoopy rod. The Snoopy rod was for little kids and it was almost like a play-like type rod and reel. He usually out caught me about 10 to 1.
Then, there’s my old buddy, Morris Southall. Morris knew where the good places were and he had nice rods and a nice tackle box. He loved to catch fish and he also loved to eat fish. Fact is, he would carry a battery charged fish knife with him. Any time we would get in the boat, he would have that thing with him. Sometimes, by the time we got back to shore he would already have all of his fish ready for the frying pan.
We were out one day and had pretty good luck. All of a sudden, I got into one and landed a pretty good sized bass. Now for me, it was a BIG bass, maybe not for some people, but for me it was a 5 pounder or so.
This was a mount on the wall type for me. As we head back to shore, I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get it mounted, whose going to mount it for me, but then, all of a sudden, I hear this buzzing sound. He’s filleting my trophy. I start yelling at him and when we got to shore I lit into him.
I said, “Hey, I was planning to mount that fish. I can’t believe you did this. The least you could have done was ask me.” He looked up and smiled, reached back and picked up that fish’s skeleton, handed it to me, and said, “Mount this!”
Then, there was my dad. He loved to fish! He didn’t care if it was a lake, a river, a tank, salt water, he just loved to fish. He instilled that in me.
I remember back in the old days, I mean the OLD days, when Flat Rock was not a park, it was just a dock out in the water, and we went out there a lot. It had to be, at that time, the best crappie place anywhere on the lake. We would catch tons of crappie and I know he would get tired but he would never quit because I never got tired.
We fished all over and had some great times. I have great memories of my dad and I and will always be thankful for him teaching me how to fish.
And then there was Jim Laird. The long time engineer at KBWD-KOXE was one of my favorites. I the weather was right, he would pick me up from work at midnight or so and we’d go to the lake and fish all night, usually until the sun was coming up.
He was another one I could never out-fish, but loved trying.
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].