A Fish Tale

Well in case yall aint noticed I am not one for tellin fish tales. Everyone has one, or knows someone who has one or has heard one. They usually start like: "Did I ever tell ya about the time.............", and go on to describe some whale that got away or hung outa the back of the pick-up on the way home. I leave fish stories to Peg, who has been known to catch fish that continue growing long after they have met my frying pan. One of her favorites is bout the time we went to the River to tight-line some catfish and she 'skunked' me(fisherman's term for catching fish when I didn't) I'm afraid if she don't come up with a new story soon, her arms will be too short to tell this one:-)
Well, I digress. Here is the story I have bout the Redfish that came to Thanksgivin' dinner on the boat:

Me and Larry(our wheelman) had just finished loading a 'location' and were crossing a shallow bay on our way to the next location that we were to load the next day, which was Thanksgivin'. I was drivin' and, Larry, havin' just finished stowing the lines, came up to the wheel-house to "BS" for a while. We were planning our Thanksgiving dinner and all happy that we were gonna get where we were going early and tie up for the night. We were short-handed with just the 2 of us on board; I figure that was probably cause of the holiday.
Well, while crossing the Bay, I saw something strange in the water in front of the barge, watched it for awhile and asked Larry "Hey, whas that look like to you?" He grabbed the binoculars off the dash, leaned outa the door for a good view and said "Man!! das one BIG !#%$!~#% (sailor term)Redfish!!!" We couldn't figure what was his problem; he was thrashing around waving his tail up outa da water, like hooked on something. I backed the engines, stopping the barge and Larry ran out to see the fish. He hollered back, " He aint hooked, He is just on top of the water lookin kinda tired out." Well, bout that time the fish found a burst of energy and swam away. Larry walked back to the boat, and bout the time he got there, the fish popped up again a few yards further away. Well, to shorten an already long story, we chased that fish for about an hr. around that bay. Kinda comical, if any one had seen us. Big ole barge and boat chasing a fish around. Well, anyways finally we caught him. I stopped the boat and ran down to the deck to help Larry with the fish. He had managed to wrap some line round the fish's tail. I reached down, grabbed the fish by the tail, tried to lift him aboard, but he was too heavy and slimy for me to get a good hold on him. I told Larry to get a rag which would help with the grip. He wrapped a rag around the fish's tail and that gave us the grip we needed to pull this fish aboard. No joke we caught this fish with a rag!

Larry cleaned the fish while I drove towards our next location, and he was the Guest of Honor at our Thanksgivin' Dinner the next day. Those of you who are currently "Pishawing" and "Awwwwwwhhhhh cappy-ing", look below. I tell this fishy tale with evidence :-)

Ok, now for the explaination: notice that the fishy pictured above, is very fat looking, with a big bloated pot belly???? It's because Mr. Fishy ate way too much and had a bad case of Gas. Yes, you heard me right, Gas! When Larry cleaned him he found his belly distended like a balloon, and in it (in addition to a whole lot of gas) was 3 almost keeper-size fishys. This fish had so much gas in his tummy it affected his bouyancy, and he floated up to the surface. By the time we saw him, he was exhausted, trying to swim down with his tail thrashing in the air. Das what we saw. After spending years looking out over the water, ya develop a keen eye for what aint usual. Anyways, das my story, and unlike my growing fish story-tellin' wife, I have pictures and a witness:-)

I usually don't tell long stories on this blog, prefering to be short and sweet, with my comments on life. Consider this my attempt to compete with Tom's Bear Tale. I think my story is better, cause it ends with a wonderful baked fish Thanksgiving dinner, where Tom's story ends with the Bear being the only one getting dinner.

Anyways, I'm tellin' this story to a man from Oklahoma that I've never met or spoke too. His wife is a chat friend of ours and a reader of this blog, and from what I hear he likes a good fish story. THIS ONE IS FOR YOU MIKE, HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!