Friday at camp - No Bradley just fun...

[Gordon]

My little buddy has been wanting to go to the "autumn show" for the last two weeks. I am not sure where he got the idea, but I am pretty sure he meant the extravaganza. At 4 years old, he can be persistent. He had been really good last week when daycare was out for a week, and he had to go to work with mom. So, I took off Friday and we went to the camp with Uncle Leroy. Uncle Leroy is a church member who has befriended me, and he does seem to like the little ones too.

We started off fishing about 9-ish, and did not catch anything except gar for three hours. We were using jig poles - so when one got on the line, we handed it to my little buddy and he hauled on the pole until it got off. In his words, he "really had a time!" He did not complain about fishing at all, which 4 year old boys are prone to do after 3 hours.

At around noon, we had been using the trolling motor (our only means of propulsion outside of the one paddle) to search for the big gator that lives in the lake - when at the back of the old john-boat there was a big splash. Then something big and heavy hit me hard in the back. I could not imagine what Mr. Leroy had thrown at me, but before I could turn around, I realized I had a 3 foot carp floppin at my feet. He was really beating up the boat, and bleeding everywhere. I grabbed the igloo cooler and put it on top of him to calm him down. Mr. Leroy looked at me, and I looked back for a second - then he said, "watchya got?"

"I think it is a carp."

Now Mr. Leroy retired from the railroad back in '94, so, to say that he has had hearing loss is an understatement. He thought I said "gar" not "carp."

"Throw it back in!"

"It is a little big to simply grab."

He handed me some needle-nose pliers. "Here, use these."

"Got anything bigger?"

"Nope, just get a good grip and throw it in!"

I got the fish back in the water, but he will have a hard time chewing from now on. Little Buddy has not stopped talking about it since.

I am just glad it did not jump out on his side of the boat. It could have really hurt him.

We also saw some barred owls, a racoon that ran in front of our 4-wheeler, and some of the nightmarishly largest spiders I have ever seen. We also went to the "autumn show" Saturday.

He really had a time.

Gordo

What a piece of work is man!

[Oldman]

Sounds like you had as much fun as your boy. Now you are saying Gar. If your Gar are like the Gar we have down here they can be nasty.

For those who do not know what a Gar is it is like a gator with fins.




A monster Gar... check out the teeth on this gator Gar~~!




Open wide please~~! This puppy is a large mouth bass's nightmare! For that matter just about everything else's nightmare except a real gator.


When I was a boy one got a hold of my dad's leg. To this day you can still see the teeth marks.

Olds

[JJC]

Nice gar pix, Olds!  The gar is actually one of the most primitive of the true fishes (those with bony skeletons and jaws).  I've heard enough stories about them chewing human appendages that I hope I never have one in the boat (alive)!

John
Newton MA

[Gordon]

That is them alright.  I am not all that far from you Olds..Mississippi.  Saw some big ones from the dam.  Spent about an hour wearing them out.

We don't like to get them in the boat, and their mouths are rather hard, so we just let my little buddy play with them till they got off.  That is all he really wanted to do.



What a piece of work is man!