My wife's nephew Stanley visited us this weekend.He has joined the army and completed basic training and will soon be headed somewhere in the Middle East.....please remember him in your thoughts and prayers.He has grown up to be a find well mannered young man-but as a young boy he was a holy terror.....
Our whole family used to get together about every weekend at one of the large lakes in Southern MO. for a weekend of camping and fishing.Sometimes we would camp all weekend and sometimes we would just make a day trip-arriving early in the morning and coming home at dark.
One weekend we were all fishing side by side along the sandy shore of Clearwater lake. There must have been 6 or 8 of us with our lines cast out in the water sitting in lawn chairs waiting for the fish to bite.Right beside me was Stanley who was about 6 or 7 years old at the time and the proud owner of a new "Snoopy" Zebco 202 rod and reel.Stanley was spending about half his time throwing rocks into the area we were fishing in and the other half of his time getting his line tangled up with mine.....
Finally he got bored and threw his fishing pole down on the ground with his baited (by me) line cast out into the water.I warned him several times that he might lose his rod and reel this way if a big fish grabbed his bait as the area we were fishing dropped off quickly into very deep water.I think he responded to my advise by sticking his tongue out at me and throwing more rocks if I remember right.....
Just a few minutes later I heard him let out a scream so loud I thought he had been snake bit!When I jumped up and looked toward him he was a screaming and squalling and pointing toward the water where his Snoopy fishing outfit was streaking across the shallow water before disappearing into the murky depths....
Now Stanley was really throwing a fit-but I really wasn't paying him much attention because I had just got a bite and had a fish on...and a monster from the feel of it!
I was a running up and down the bank playing the fish, the drag on my reel was screaming as the fish took out more and more line-to the point I thought my reel would be stripped of line.I would gain a little ground and the fish would make another run-all the while hugging the bottom in the deep water.After 10 minutes or so of this the fish began to tire and I began to gain some good ground on him.As I worked him closer and closer suddenly I could see something flashing in the shallow water and it wasn't a fish......It was a Snoopy fishing outfit! My line was tangled around it and the fish was still a good ways out on the end of the line of the Snoopy!
When I got it close enough I reached down and grabbed the Snoopy fishing pole and tossed mine up on the bank.The lines were tangled so badly that I couldn't even turn the reel handle on the little Zebco 202 so I just began walking away from the bank dragging the now worn out fish in.....turned out to be a grass carp that weighed nearly 50 pounds on tackle box scales.
Now you would have thought little Stanley would have been one happy little boy to get his Snoopy back....Instead he went into another screaming fit accusing me of stealing his fish!His dad had had enough by this time and promptly swatted him a few times on the backside and took him back to camp.Stanley's fishing was over for the day....I released the carp and cut about half the line away before I could get the lines untangled.
This weekend as the young soldier visited us he reminded me about this little incident.I had nearly forgotten about it.He told me he still had that little Snoopy fishing outfit and hoped to be able to give it to his own child someday and tell them the story behind it.I hope and pray the he does.
Our whole family used to get together about every weekend at one of the large lakes in Southern MO. for a weekend of camping and fishing.Sometimes we would camp all weekend and sometimes we would just make a day trip-arriving early in the morning and coming home at dark.
One weekend we were all fishing side by side along the sandy shore of Clearwater lake. There must have been 6 or 8 of us with our lines cast out in the water sitting in lawn chairs waiting for the fish to bite.Right beside me was Stanley who was about 6 or 7 years old at the time and the proud owner of a new "Snoopy" Zebco 202 rod and reel.Stanley was spending about half his time throwing rocks into the area we were fishing in and the other half of his time getting his line tangled up with mine.....
Finally he got bored and threw his fishing pole down on the ground with his baited (by me) line cast out into the water.I warned him several times that he might lose his rod and reel this way if a big fish grabbed his bait as the area we were fishing dropped off quickly into very deep water.I think he responded to my advise by sticking his tongue out at me and throwing more rocks if I remember right.....
Just a few minutes later I heard him let out a scream so loud I thought he had been snake bit!When I jumped up and looked toward him he was a screaming and squalling and pointing toward the water where his Snoopy fishing outfit was streaking across the shallow water before disappearing into the murky depths....
Now Stanley was really throwing a fit-but I really wasn't paying him much attention because I had just got a bite and had a fish on...and a monster from the feel of it!
I was a running up and down the bank playing the fish, the drag on my reel was screaming as the fish took out more and more line-to the point I thought my reel would be stripped of line.I would gain a little ground and the fish would make another run-all the while hugging the bottom in the deep water.After 10 minutes or so of this the fish began to tire and I began to gain some good ground on him.As I worked him closer and closer suddenly I could see something flashing in the shallow water and it wasn't a fish......It was a Snoopy fishing outfit! My line was tangled around it and the fish was still a good ways out on the end of the line of the Snoopy!
When I got it close enough I reached down and grabbed the Snoopy fishing pole and tossed mine up on the bank.The lines were tangled so badly that I couldn't even turn the reel handle on the little Zebco 202 so I just began walking away from the bank dragging the now worn out fish in.....turned out to be a grass carp that weighed nearly 50 pounds on tackle box scales.
Now you would have thought little Stanley would have been one happy little boy to get his Snoopy back....Instead he went into another screaming fit accusing me of stealing his fish!His dad had had enough by this time and promptly swatted him a few times on the backside and took him back to camp.Stanley's fishing was over for the day....I released the carp and cut about half the line away before I could get the lines untangled.
This weekend as the young soldier visited us he reminded me about this little incident.I had nearly forgotten about it.He told me he still had that little Snoopy fishing outfit and hoped to be able to give it to his own child someday and tell them the story behind it.I hope and pray the he does.
