This fish story was told to me back during the fifties. I was told that it really happened. At any rate, I suggest that you take this and all fishing stories with a grain of salt. In fact, you might want to
bring the whole salt shaker!
An old German in South Texas had a spring-fed pond on his place that was so deep that nobody had ever had a line long enough to reach bottom. The pond was surrounded by huge,
old pecan trees and full of fish. All the local kids swam and fished there with the old man's blessing.
Early mornings would find the old man down at the pond, fishing for the numerous sunfish, bass, and
catfish the pond held. At some point in time, the old gentleman began to have trouble with a fish that was just too strong for his tackle. He got his line broken repeatedly, and when he put on heavier line, his
hooks would straighten out.
This went on for some time, until the old man decided it was time to quit fooling around and get serious with this fish. Although he was generally so tight with his money that he
"squeaked when he walked", he had started taking things personally, and so it was that he drove into town and bought a new saltwater rod and reel along with 100 pound line and shark hooks with steel leaders. Before
sun-up the next morning, he rigged up, and put on a huge sunfish for bait. This bait was grabbed as soon as it went under, and line began to peel off at a terrific rate. The old man cranked down on the drag, but that
didn't do any good. As his reel began to run low on line, he cranked the drag all the way down and leaned back, putting his considerable strength into it.
The rod bowed until the tip was in the water.
Suddenly the rod handle broke off in his hands with a loud snap, and the old German fell on his assets (he carried his money in his wallet). The rest of that new rod and reel headed for Davey Jones' Locker. Needless to
say, the old gent was extremely upset.
He got himself up, drove to the barn, got out his homebrew, and proceeded to get "drunker than Cooter Brown". As he sat there drunk on a bale of hay, his eye came to
rest on a hayhook on the wall. This gave him an IDEA, and he suddenly staggered to his feet, grabbed the hayhook, and somehow drove his old pickup into town, to the blacksmith's shop.
He found the
blacksmith and began to try to tell him what he needed. He said "Mister Blacksmith, I vant for you for me from dis hayhook a fish hook to make, and I vant for you for me a 20 foot chain on it to veld". Well, the
blacksmith fixed him up in short order and back home he careened with his new custom-built fishing tackle. As soon as he got there, he tied a gallon jug on it for a bobber, stuck half a ham on for bait, and fixed the
chain to a large tree limb with a nut and bolt. At this point, the old man had had enough for one day, so he flung the hook into the water and drove home to sleep it off.
In spite of a hangover, pale
dawn found the old man driving down to the pond to check his "line". He could see that he had something before he got there, because the limb he had tied to was jerking erratically. When he got closer, he could see the
chain, tracing big circles in the water, going so fast that it was making a hissing sound. The old man climbed out on the limb and pulled on the chain, but he couldn't even get slack in it. Realizing that he
couldn't catch this fish alone, he jumped into his truck, and drove to town to get two of his fishing buddies to help him. When they got back to the pond, two of them got out on that limb trying to pull the fish in, but
without success.
About this time, the third old man had a brainstorm. He said "Tie a lariat rope to the chain and the other end to the truck, then we'll loosen the chain from the limb, gas the truck, and
pull him out." So this is what they did, and they pulled out the biggest alligator gar you have ever seen. This fish measured eleven feet long and weighed 400 pounds on the local cotton gin scales.
