Cousin Teddy and the Magic Rag - Pt II

[bdahunter]

The milk cans full of spring water secured in the back of Gramp’s pickup, my older brother Gordon and I head down to the old dock with our homemade fishing poles and a galvanized bucket full of worms we’d dug by the manure pile that morning. Gordon was 5 years older than me, so 13 years old, he had carrot top hair with a terrible temper to match and the fastest reflexes you’ve ever seen. On our way to the dock we met up with my cousin Teddy, 12 years old and stocky with a mischievous smile that never left his face. Teddy had a fishing pole just like ours, a maple sapling that had been whittled down with fence clips for line guides and a roofing nail to hold the reel of 15 lb test on the side of the pole.
Out onto the dock we went, gingerly, because the dock was an old pipe and 2x4 arrangement that always gave the impression of being ready to collapse at any moment. We baited our hooks and cast in, we all got hits immediately, the fish were biting hard and we were each hoping to land a big Walleye but all that we caught were Sunnies and Perch, being so close to shore. Catch and release, catch and release is how it went for about an hour until we’d caught all those fish at least twice and they started to get a little gun shy of our hooks. (pardon the mixed metaphor). The sun was getting strong now and with the sun came the horseflies, buzzing across the Lilly pads like B-52’s, looking to take a bite out of some young fishermen. We made a game out of letting them settle on our exposed arms and legs for a bite and then we’d snatch them up in our hands, give them a good crunch so they couldn’t fly and throw them to the fishes; soon we had a whole school of Sunfish and Perch waiting for our next offering.
The fish certainly weren’t biting now that they had a free meal so we started to get bored, just then Teddy had an idea and hightailed it back to his cottage to get his .177 pellet rifle. He came back at the run with a tin of pellets and his pellet gun , loaded her up and when the fish came to the surface to get the next horsefly he took a shot and bagged a Sunnie. We’d invented a brand new sport, fish shooting! We set our rods aside and got down to our new sport with a passion and soon had enough Sunnies for a fish fry. Once again we started to get bored and were about to pack up the pellet gun and the rods when Gordon’s rod took off down the dock all by itself. Gordon snatched it up just as it was going off the end of the dock and pulled back hard, the fishing pole doubled over to the point that it looked like it was going to snap, he’d caught a Whopper!
“It’s a Walleye” yelled Gordon easing back on the rod so it didn’t break “it’s got be a 20 pounder”. WOW!, a real fish, this was GREAT, Teddy and I hovered around my brother trying to help and giving stupid advice. Gordon played that monster for 10 minutes and thought he’d lost him in the lilies a couple of times but the hook must have been set fast and fortunately Gordon had a stainless steel leader he’d found, on the end of his line or that big old Walleye would have chewed right through his line in no time. Slowly the big fish started to give way but we still couldn’t see how big it was because of the lilies and the dark muskoka water. As Gordon maneuvered his prize closer to the end of the dock Teddy grabbed up the net to dip him out of the water. Gordon pulled back hard and the big fish started to rise from the bottom, Teddy got down on his belly with the old net in his hands to meet him.
Up from the depths came the Biggest, Ugliest Snapping Turtle we had ever seen and it HISSED right into Teddy’s face.
Teddy leapt back from the ugly beast and its’ parrot-like beak, it had moss and worms growing out of it’s shell and a awfully nasty disposition by the way it kept hissing at us and snapping it’s jaws trying to cut the SS leader.
Teddy took off like a shot down the dock and along the path to the beach where Jack Lighthouse was watching his kids swim in the swimming area, Teddy was hollering and waving his arms like a maniac and it took a while for Jack to calm him down enough to find out what all the commotion was about. When Teddy was finally coherent enough to explain what we’d caught, Jack jogged up to his cottage just off the beach and came back with his double barrel shotgun cracked over his arm, loading in two shells. Gordon and I were torn between watching Jack marching down the path towards us, loading his shotgun and the hissing monster at the end of Gordon’s line, that turtle’s shell was almost 2 feet across! “Hold him steady son” said Jack to my brother then lowered the barrel at the head of the turtle and ‘KA-BLAM’ the turtle’s head disappeared along with a big chunk of the shell. Water splashed everywhere and as the ripples started to fade the big, old turtle slowly sank to the bottom.
“That Snapper’s not taking a chunk out of my kids” said Jack, he took another quick look just to make sure the job was done, popped out the spent shell and headed back to his cottage. There’d been an awful lot of gunfire today and people came out of their cottages and down to the beach to find out what the heck was going on. Pretty soon a tight group had assembled on the beach wanting to know what the heck Jack thought he was doing blasting away with his shotgun just 50 feet from the swimming area where their kids were playing. Blah, Blah, Blah; the conversation went until all agreed that it was a good idea to dispatch the snapping turtle we’d hooked. For a little while the three of us were heroes for uncovering the turtle menace but then one woman piped up that the turtle wouldn’t have been a menace if we hadn’t made it mad by hooking it in the first place. Gordon, Teddy and I looked at each other and slipped away from the crowd before anyone could pin the blame on us for just fishing.

Some people have no sense of gratitude.

[prizm-pal]

Bda...I am kinda suprised gramps didn't make a big old snapper soup out of that guy...I am going stir crazy...sitting on couch..no smoking ...no Morgan...not even coffee...or salt..story kept my mind off thoose things...thanks...I am taking Buddy for walk later..don't care...for both his mental health and mine!

[EPC Guy]

That's a monster, alright!

[Buster]

Good for soup...BDA....Buster...

[gordiesgirl]

I love the story, Can't wait to read more.