Saturday, July 20, 1968
Bobber catcher. - July 20, 1968
Posted: January 14, 2014 | Last Revised: January 14, 2014
I believe it was mid July in 1968 when I was about nine years old. My dad took us boys, Dan, Paul and I, Larry was in California at the time, fishing to a little lake located out East of Byers about 6 or so miles on Hwy 36 called Newnans(sp?) Lake by all of us locals. A small lake of maybe 10 acres built by a dirt dam on one of the run off streams on the Newnan ranch. You had to have a key to get in which meant you had to know either the Newnan family or one of their friends. I'm not sure which my dad knew. I just knew he had a key to the lock to get in and we used it quite a bit. We all fished sitting on the dam with fiberglass Zebcos with plastic red and white bobbers. Dan had rigged up two hooks on his line so to better increase his odds of landing a trophy. The fishing was slow but I remember the weather being very warm and the sun hot. We sat for what seemed like hours to a nine yr old but was actually probably about 20 minutes when something took Dans line hard. His bobber temporarily disappeared and the second he went to set the hook his line snapped. I saw that and was instantly saddened. Our first chance for a fish and then bad luck. When about that time Dan stood up kicked his shoes off and dove into the lake head first. He was a strong swift swimmer and in a matter of seconds had caught up to his runaway bobber and snagged it slightly under the surface of the water with his left hand. He then turned and swam back to the shore where pulling the bobber and broken line up out of the water. Not only did he have a fish on one hook but had one nice size Bluegill on each of the two hooks. I can remember all of us laughing and praising Dan for his talented fishing tactics. Later I will share another story of a similar incident on the Mississippi river when we were all about the same age. Thanks for the memories Dan and being a brother I could really look up to!!
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