I have always had an obsession with fishing, from when I was a kid and my Dad was taking me everywhere, to even after I entered the Army. It was in the Late 80's and I was stationed at Ft. Knox Kentucky. I was bored one day and went to the base Rod and Gun club, when I got there, besides the obvious amount of guns for sale, I saw fishing supplies. I inquired of the clerk where a person could go to fish, the clerk was very cordial and in his southern slang he basically said heck son you can fish anywhere on base. He then gave me a map, which detailed the locations of the fishing ponds the Army Corp of engineers had constructed, and here the whole time I thought engineers only blew stuff up, I was in heaven.
Being a young man from Utah, the only warm water species I was comfortable catching or should I say had experience catching, was a few channel cats from Utah lake and the Green River, with my grandfather in Bluff Utah. The clerk sold me a fishing pole, some tackle, hooks, leader, sinkers and a few bass lures. He also instructed me to go to the local sporting goods store in town and purchase a resident fishing license, telling me, that since I am stationed in Kentucky, I qualify for a resident fishing license, to put it mildly this kid was now in the words of Phil Robertson; "Very happy, happy, happy".
When I arrived at the sporting goods store in Radcliff KY, I found out that you could actually use live minnows, coming from Utah this was very new to me. So, after purchasing a few items, and a license, my dog Mandy -a sheltie mix, kind of a very small collie, that looked like a miniature lassie-, and I took our new pole, fishing equipment and a bucket full of live minnows, and headed off to explore the great new ponds that were at our disposal.
Now, if you have never fished in Kentucky or anywhere in the Midwest, let me give you a little warning, there are snakes in them thar hills. Mandy was great at finding them but, not so great at scaring them away. Every trip was one snake after another, cotton mouths, (water moccasins), and a few rattle snakes, and a few others that were just plain scary. Mandy was my guardian and would always let me know when there was a slitheren around, she also saved my bacon a few times, I should have named her mini little Lassie II.
One evening after last formation, Mandy and I went fishing to a new pond, it wasn't very long until I had a bite, and hooked a fish, a small blue gill. Well I was enjoying the fishing and reeling in the fish I had caught, when it suddenly got a lot heavier and started to fight with even more determination. I thought to myself that maybe a bass or a large catfish had eaten it, in its struggle to get free. But, when I got the fish to within a few yards of the shore, Mandy my "slitheren guard" started barking and throwing a fit, this startled me and I started looking around by my feet, and in the general vicinity of us for one those pesky slitheren, but to my surprise she was looking into the water at the fish I was fighting. I thought, great she is my cheering section, but what I hadn't seen was, it was not a bass, nor a catfish that had caught my blue gill but a cotton mouth, and it was trying to steal it. When I finally saw the snake, I was mere milliseconds from throwing the pole, and while screaming like a girl, go running for my car, calling it quits and leaving, -not wanting anything to do with that snake-, when it suddenly pulled the fish free and disappeared. Mandy and I never went back to that pond again, we decided we did not like feeding the snakes.
There were several trips Mandy and I took, utilizing our map reading skills, trying to find the ponds marked on the map, Mandy was always sitting in the passenger seat, looking out the window pretending to care about going fishing. I think she was more interested in chasing the poodle sized squirrels, then actually fishing, when all of a sudden she would start barking and growling, I would look around and there right in the road would be a giant black snake, to say the least both of us would immediately decide not to fish that pond, not today or any other day, with a quick swipe of the pen that pond would also now be crossed out!
Mandy and I mostly caught brim, perch, blue gill, and a few small bass and a catfish here and there. We traveled all over Kentucky searching for lakes, ponds and reservoirs we could fish. We would spend afternoon after afternoon fishing, and avoiding snakes, it was always an adventure and being in the back woods, smelling the timber and having a good dog with me, always brought me peace and made being so far away from home a whole lot easier.
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