Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1902-08-01
HE WAS UNBELIEVING
sTOREkEEPER REFUSED TO
CREDIT TALE OF FISHERMAN.
squire Bundy's Pleasure In Landing
Fourteen.Pound Pike With a Line
Spoiled by the unreasonableness OF
Friend.

1.-THE only surprising thing about
he catching Of that pike" said Squire
3undy, Sage of the French Creek
dead Waters, was the aggravating
lnreasonableness of Tom Agnew, who
seeps store over yonder In the vii
age, and weighed the pike. My fam
ly had got fish hungry and said there
must be black bass for breakfast next
morning. So l picked up pole and
inc, jumped in my boat, and started
,u. to get the bass.
Don't go and catch any Of those
great big ones, now, and only catch
wo,' my wife said to me as I pulled
,ut. Two three-pounders will be
plenty.
81 said | would try to keep myself
,own to two bass and though l hated
bother with three-pounders, I'd
lraw the line this time at any over
thai
so I went to fishing. had a
,trike before | had crossed the foam
lalf way. | saw when | felt him
,trike that he wouldn't weigh more
han two pounds and half. but it
was getting dark pretty fast, and
hadn't time to let him go and to fool
,round for a three-pounder, so | hook
I'd him and landed him. | calculated
getting the other bass by the time
lad crossed the boom, but I had to
stop my boat, for my hook struck
What l supposed was snag, and |
stopped my boat.
81 hadn't stopped q second, though.
md felt of my line, when l knew 1t
wasn't a snag | had struck. There
vas life at the other end Of the line.
thought at first it was pike, but
when a French Creek pike feels the
hook in it's jaw it comes out Of the
water like skyrocket, going up, and
rs nothing of this kind occurred, l
concluded a mud turtle had snubbed
IN to me. l didn't care to have
mud turtle pull that line apart, go off
xith my hook. and cheat me out of
hat other bass | was going to get, so
coaxed him up toward the top.
HE cam. along slow and easy and
when | got him to the top saw
had been fooled. 1t wasn't a mud
turtle, and | made grab for the smell
that my hook was fastened to the
inc with, got it, and with one sweep
anded a fourteen and half pike In
he boat He gave one turn over. n
the bottom of the boat, and that little
move pulled the line in two like melt
ng snow. The only way l could &C.
count for that pike acting the way 1t
lid when 1t got the hook was that it
discovered the rotten condition of
hat lire, and made up his mind
here wasn't any use of going to the
trouble of jumping out of the water to
rec itself, but that it would just
,ome up to the top easy, let me see
what beauty il was, and then twitch
me line apart and go back, leaving me
O cuss my luck. But the pike hadn't
counted on me grabbing that smell.
"Well, of course, with that pike Ia
he boat it would be only waste OF
line and fish to get the other bass
intended to get, so quit fishing.
owed over and took the pike to Tom
Agnew's store to have it weighed, to
zee how near lad come to sizing it
up. Tom weighed the fish. 1t tip
,ed the scales at fourteen and a half
pounds and one ounce. After he had
weighed the pike and looked it over
ind admired it, Tom asked me what
lad caught it on. told him and
,howed him the line. To show you
now aggravatMgly unreasonable he
vas, he looked at the line, and then at
me, and said:
"'You're an internal liar!'
"And that was I've only surprising
hing l ever saw about the catching of
hat pike-Tom Agnew's aggravating
lnreasonableness."- New York Sun.