Our Totally Unbelievable, Ridiculous Day!!!.......

Wow.  That's all I can think of to say.

Here's the story:  Believe it or not, Cindy has never been fishing. I mean, never been fishing in her life!

We have discussed this over the years, and I have always marveled at how someone could go through so much living, and travel, and fun...without ever having been fishing.

Anyway, on to the story...

I finally bought two nice, heavy-duty fishing rods, two good reels, some 12-pound test line for the reels, and some basic tackle.  I surprised Cindy by telling her we were going fishing!  Of course, she was ecstatic. 

I had done some investigating, and the information I garnered led me to believe we might have some luck catching a few small catfish in the Clinch River, which is near our house.

Since I don't have a boat, I figured we would just fish off a good spot on the bank for a while.  Hopefully she would get a bite, feel the magical tug of a hapless fish on the line and reel it in for her first historic catch.  I got a fried chicken picnic basket and some cold drinks in a cooler.  We stopped at the QuickSack and got two fishing licenses, and I drove us to a scenic, predetermined spot on the river.  I put up two stools I had brought from home, showed the dear lady how to bait a hook, pulled out two diet 7-Ups from the cooler, tossed the lines into the scenic river and enjoyed the feeling.

Clinch River, Near Where We Fished

We talked a little, ate some fried chicken, and watched as nothing happened with our bait.  Still, it was fun.

All of a sudden, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!!!

She got a bite so hard the rod jumped from her hand.  I grabbed it just before it could be pulled into the water.  My God, it was a monster fish! 

The drag on the reel spun and sang like an out-of-control  racecar.  Cindy shrieked in horror/amazement.  I hung on for dear life, dumbfounded. 

By and by, the drag eased and I gave the rod back to the Cinderoo, who had peed her pants at the excitement.  I told her to keep the rod tip up and reel, baby, reel.  Minutes turned to hours.  The denizen slowly began to move shoreward.  After two hours, we had drawn a sizeable crowd around us, as they could not help but notice the drama unfolding.  Cindy was definitely tiring, but the huge fish---whatever it was, was also obviously tuckered out, and it was being pulled closer and closer to our place on shore.

OH. MY. GOD.  When the fish got within 20 feet of us, we saw it for the first time.  It was a monster, unlike anything I have ever seen in my life.  It looked prehistoric.  It looked otherworldly.  This was a fish from the netherworld.  Whatever it was, I knew this was gonna make big headlines---and not just in Tennessee, but around the world.

It Took About 12 Guys From the Crowd to Haul the Fish Ashore

It took 12 men from the crowd around us to pull the spent beast ashore.  No one knew what it was until an old Game and Fish Officer was called.  He said it was a giant sturgeon, which had been absent from these waters for a couple of hundred years.  He said he had never seen anything like it at all, and he had been working these waters for 45 years.  The newspaper sent a photographer.  The school up on the hill let the children come down to the river to see the beast.  The University of Tennessee sent a team of Ph.Ds to make a report.  Cindy got interviewed by ABC News.  Excitement, excitement, excitement.

What a day!  And to think this was Cindy's FIRST fishing trip!  Like I said, "WOW"!!!

We paid this old geezer $20 to haul Cindy's catch to the Hatchery

It took four hours to land the big fish.  We got an old geezer in a rowboat to haul the thing up to the hatchery on the river, where we got one of the town's fish markets to dress it for us.  They said the beast weighed 480 pounds.  From that, Cindy and I netted six pounds of caviar and 150 pounds of sturgeon steaks for our freezer.  What a day!

NOTE:  On the way to our car to return home, I spotted the largest rabbit I had ever seen in the field.  I chased it down.  I thought you would all enjoy the picture of me and our new pet.