So it was back around '82 and my Cozin Rufus and I were getting ready for our annual fishin' trip to Lake Accatinque so we borrowed his lively wife, Retha Mea's AMC Concord station wagon which was filled with all the important stuff, like coolers full of cold Iron City Beer, peanut butter sammichs and cold Iron City Beer...

Well, as we always did we rented a little motor boat... Had a 6 hp Evinrude outboard and didn't leak bad...

Well, in our excitement we had gotten to out favorite little fishin' spot when we discovered that we hadn't brought any bait...

Hmmmmmmmmmm??? That ain't a good thing...

So Rufus, he's the kinda guy who get real upset over little things like that and when Rufe is upset then it's a bad thing... Not that he's gonna get violent or anything but he might jump off the boat 'er break down cryin'... I could see he was about to do one of those two and was about to break into a peanut butter sammich when God Hisself said, "Boberdz!!!" I'm lookin' around going "Was that God Hisself???" when He boomed "Yes, it is me... You known, the Big Guy... Here's what you do... See that little twist tie on your sandwich bag???... Well, tell Rufus that fish will bite on it and use it for bait"...

Now God Hisself is a purdy smart feller but using a twist tie for bait was a stretch but then again that 5 fish and 2 loaves was, too, but what the hell??? Right???

So I takes a twisty tie off my peanut butter sammich bag and stick it on a #12 hook, cast out and before it hit the water a nice 3 pound small mouth bass hit it and, whooeeeee, game was on...

Rufe, he saw that and he say, "Hey, Boberdz, throw me down one of them sammiches"... He weren't hungry but he sho nuff wanted to see fir hisself if the fish would bite for him on a twisty tie so he put one on his #12 hook and cast it out and...

...BANG!!! A big ol' 5 1/2 pound large mouth hit that twisty tie and #12 hook before it his the water...

Well, Iz here to say that it was like some fisherman's devine intervention as we reeled in bass for the next hour until we looked down i the bottom of the boat and it was so filled with fish that we was close to sinking that rental boat and remembered that we ain't took out that insurance thing when we rented it so...

...I was ready to get the boat back to the rental peoples, load up our catch in the 15 coolers in the back of Retha Mea's AMC Concord station wagon and drend soem more Iron City Beer while driving home listenin' to Retha Mae's fine collection of ol' Loretta Lynn and Hank Snow 8 tracks...

Well, Rufe say's "Just one more fish, Boberdz" so I says "Okay" and Rufe, well he cast that twisty tie that last time and before it hit's the water...

...BANG!!! A big ol' 8 pound large mouth hits it and then, people, things went real strange... Ya' see, before that bass hit the water this monster mudtom come outta the water and swallowed that 8 pound large mouth and crashed back into Lake Accatinque and all was quiet for about three very long seconds when Rufus all but had his arms pulled off him as that mudtom, he, decided that he didn't much like being attached to no one with no fish pole in his hands so he took off...

Rufe was in the back of the boat with his feet up against the transom and that tom, he was pourin' on them fish coals and heading us straight toward the boathouse where we had rented the boat...

Now, my friends, there's something about a rented moat when it's being pulled 30 mph or more by an angry mudtom backwards and that something is called a serious water sprout... I mean, the back of that boat was pushing so hard that the water musta looked like a tornado and as that catfish got into the higher gears poor ol' Rufe's arms was a shabkin' and that water sprout got higher and higer and them bass fish we'd caught earlier that was the bottom of the boat was even scared....

Well, the shore was comin' in faster and faster and then...

BANG!!! Ol' Tom he hit the shore and kept on a'going and draggin' us with him... He shot right over the parking lot just missing Retha Mae's AMC Concord station wagon and across the road and into a corn field on the other side of the road and had so much momentum that we didn't come to a full stop until we was maybe a quarter mile deep in that corn field...

Well, there are times in life where there really ain't no words to describe what had just happened and this was one... I mean, we could still hear that mudtom snorting up there somewhere in that corn filed... Rufus, he look ate me and I look back and tried to say somethin' but nothin' cam out...

'Bout 4 hours later we had all them bass loaded into them 14 coolers and had made some arrangements with the boat guys for the damage and was heading back home in Retha Mae's AMC Concord station wagon with Hank Snow singing thru the 8 track...

Rufe, he was sound asleep...

Me??? Hey, just another day of fishing...

But folks around Lake Accatinque they say that now and then when the night is till that they hear the snortin' of an ol' mudtom back in that cornfield...

I donno??? All I know is what I know and that is I still have a few of them bass froze in the deep freeze so this story must be true...

Bobert