The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-12-02

pounds. You don't find such bass in
the north. but IN the lakes and
streams of Florida that is no unusu-
al size.
was fishing last summer on Half
Noon Lake. My companion was DR..
Warren. whose occupation is against
him. being a clergyman. but never
theless. one OF the best all-around
men I know. and we had little mig
ger, Tim. TO row. The doctor had
hopeless knot in his line that would
not go thru the guides, so he told
Tim to keep close in. Tim knowing
that l like sixty feet, steers a middle
course.
Well" says the doctor. relapsing
into the vernacular of his trade,
Why in Tophet don't you get in?"
"Yaas, sir. yaas. SIR" says Tim,
but gets nowhere in particular.
The doctor turns on him in high
dudgeon, and says, Tim. you unre-
generate son of Ham, you defiant
abomination and descendant Of Sa-
tan, what do you mean by disregard
ing my order?'
We'll. sab, l knows you can kind
ah holt yosef' in, bein preacha,
but l haint so sure oh de jedge."
We fished the lake several days,
Il el, aly snh
; The first morning | was awakened
by the sound of a hammer. The doc
, tor was making fish box. Now,
though he is a profound logician, yet
L am sure he is neverthegoshal
mightyless most execrable carpen-
ter in the world. l looked, he ran
the saw into tenpenny nail with
a noise like maiden aunt trying to
sing, and then with joyous abandon,
seized the hammer and struck his
thumb a reverberating whack.
l demonstrated with him, and
tried in my feeble way to show him
how much better / could build fish
box than he This peeved him and
he retired from action, and being
thus put, as it were on my mettle,
| went at it, dragged from under the
house a roll Of wire netting, found
: some Stats and pounded nails in un-
til | had what | called a pretty nifty
box. OF course the doctor scoffed al
it, and said it wouldn't hold whales
but OF course, | knew there were un'
holy motives behind his skeptcisim
and we put it in the lake and turned
out our catch into it. 1t worked tC
perfection; we ished till Saturday
night, and the fish in that box were
a sight. SiX-pounders, seven-pound
ers and one or two eight-pounders
Saturday afternoon we were to e
in, as the doctor was billed to preacf
Sunday in Ocala, but just as we cam,
ashore a tremendous thunderstorm
came up which frightened nigge
L Tim about stiff. The doctor, VIII
> fears nothing, hardly waited for th'
rain to quit before he dragged OIL
the terrified Tim and, shouting t.
= me to get ready and crank up, h.
> and Tim went to get the fish from
the box.
Each grabbed an end to lift it t.
= I the plank, and just as it left the wa
ter the bottom fell out and every fisl
skiddooed!
a Thus may the fruits of my energ
patience and skill turn to ashes thrl
= the unhallowed touch of ecclesiasti
y cal error.
9 | have very little patience with tn
h doctors iterations and reiteration
: that | did not nail it up as he woul
a have done. Even Tim laughed tn
q loud laugh OF scorn at what he con
q siterei my Waterloo.
a On this trip l landed two bi
Y fish at one throw and did the trio
;e three times. Many times as | woul
e be leading one in, l would see hal
e, 4 dozen whoppers darting after tn
d bait projecting from the mouth c
= the first candidate. Once I had hooI
l. ed a fair-sized bass, perhaps three c
At four pounds, when / saw a big on
q dart from under an old log and 70
% low the first. The smaller one tor
loose a. close approach, and the bi
a one took the bait and was Iande
Or He weighed eight pounds.
id On this trip we found the Withli
e cOochee choked with hyacinths thre