Within ten minutes at his new site Mike’s bobber began to circle slowly. "There he is," Mike whispered. His bobber began to bounce gently in a straight line pointing toward the end of the sand bar, 30 feet in the distance. "C'mon, take it," he plead.
The bobber immediately responded diving beneath the water’s surface in one loud, “Plunk!” As Mike set the hook, he leapt from his chair and anxiously whispered, "Oh, oh, it's a. . . whale?" He realized this fighter was not the same as the catfish he caught earlier. This lunker quickly bent the fishing pole into a taut, quivering U-shape.
"Is it. . . ? Is it a. . . ? Is it a catfish?" He questioned the air. Mike had no idea what he had hold of, though the unnamed monster seemed to have him as well. I grinned wide and started to giggle.
"What the hell!" he cursed, "It's a turtle! A damn turtle!" Turtles, it is true, are a nuisance. We usually had to cut the line to be rid of them, losing a hook in the process. Turtles were easy to retrieve, but Mike’s reel sang a high pitched, “Zzzzzing!” as the line sped through the drag.
Just as quickly, Mike growled through appropriate expletives, but the beast was unrelenting. He still had no clue what he had. I, on the other hand, knew darn well what he had. Laughing, I leaned back in my chair to watch Mike catch his first carp. Watching someone pull in a carp can be, in some ways, more fun than actually reeling one to the bank yourself. Watching someone who was totally unaware of their predicament was, well, like a private showing of a comedy classic.
Carp are notorious fighters, but confined by the sandbar, any hooked fish, especially one as big as this one appeared to be, could not escape back to the main current until the waters of the river rose again. I thought I might have had time to sell tickets to the event had I been able to control myself.
Before long, I was convulsed with laughter. Mike, torn between glory and confusion, called out to me, "What is that thing? It's not a turtle. It can't be a turtle!" He was right.
Listening to his confusion, side-splitting laughter had me nearly unconscious. I could hardly breathe. Mike's occasional glances toward me, accompanied by his snorting and grimacing at the task in hand only served to worsen my condition.
Let me be clear. I was not, at any point, able to utter the words, "It is a carp."
To be continued in my upcoming post.
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Links I Like
Visual Survey of Fish in the Arkansas River near Tulsa If you don't think there's fish in the Arkansas around downtown Tulsa, get a load of this.
To see for yourself, go to one of our clear, rocky bottomed streams, like Spring Creek, in the month of June. Use any kind of bait, from worms to kernels of corn. During spawn they will hit nearly anything, but none is more fun than catching any sunfish with a fly and fly rod.
