Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-08-09
He WAS .UNBELIEVING
3ToREKEEPER REFUSED TO
CREDIT TALE OF FISHERMAN
Squire Bundy's Pleasure in Landing
Fourteen-Pound Pike With a Line
Spoiled by the Unreasonabieness Of
a Friend.

Eourteen-Pound Pike With a Line
Spoiled by the Observation-Disclosures of
a Friend.
THE only surprising thing about
he catching of that pike" said Squire
3undy, Sage of the French Creek
Dead Waters, was the aggravating
Inreasonableness of Tom Agnew, who
Keeps store over yonder in the vii
age, and weighed the pike. My fam
ly had got fish hungry and said there
must he black bass for breakfast next
morning So 1 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, row, and only catch
wo,' my wife said to me as 1 pulled
Tut. Two three-pounders will be
plenty
81 said 1 would try to keep myself
down to two bass and though 1 hated
bother with three-pounders, I'd
lraw the line this time at any over
thai
so 1 went to fishing. 1 had a
,trille before / had crossed the foam
,ale way. 1 saw when 1 felt him
strike that he wouldn't weigh more
han two pounds and half. but it
was getting dark pretty fast, and 1
hadn't time to let him go and to fool
lround for three-pounder, so l hook
I'd him and landed him. 1 calculated
.etting the other bass by the time I
lad crossed the boom, but 1 had to
stop my boat, for my hook struck
What 1 supposed was a snag, and 1
stopped my boat.
81 hadn't stopped a second, though,
md felt of my line, when 1 knew it
wasn't a snag 1 had struck. There
vas life at the other end of the line.
thought at first it was a pike, but
when a French Creek pike feels the
hook in it's jaw it comes out of the
water like a skyrocket, going up, and
rs nothing of this kind occurred,
concluded a mud turtle had snubbed
IN to me. 1 didn't care to have a
mud turtle pull that line apart, go off
With my hook, and cheat me out of
hat other bass 1 was going to get, so
coaxed him up toward the top.
HE cans along slow and easy and
when I got him to the top l saw ]
| lad been fooled. 1t wasn't a mud
| turtle, and 1 made a grab for the smell
that my hook was fastened to the
| inc with, got it, and with one sweep
| landed a fourteen and a half pike in
he boat. He gave one turn over in
+, the bottom of the boat, and that little
move pulled the line in two like melt
ng snow. The only way I-could ac-
| count for that pike acting the way it
| lid when it 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 in
The boat it would be only a waste OF
line and fish to get the other bass
i / intended to get, so I quit fishing. l
owed over and took the pike to Tom
Agnew's store to have it weighed, to
see how near I 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 !
had caught it on. 1 told him and
| showed him the line. To show you
cow aggravatngly unreasonable he
vas, he looked at the line, and then at
me, and said:
you're an Internal liarl'
| "And that was zee only surprising
hing 1 ever saw about the catching OF
hat pike-Tom Agnew's aggravating
lnreasonableness."- York Sun