Dragon Story

[Captmikestarrett]

I hosted a float trip down the Dragon with a couple of my co-workers one year in the middle of August. This was to be a 17 mile float through swamps filled with Cypress Trees and black water. Two canoes and four guys started out at the crack of dawn on the upper part of the Dragon. It was Stanley ( a died in the wool tobacco spitting redneck ) Bert a 80 year old oxygenareon and Ralph a collections guy from the NY Bronx. If ever there was a misfit group this was it. The day started out great with Stanley and I in our canoe we caught fish after fish straight for hours. Big as your hand sunfish and Lgmouth up to four pounds. Pickerel up to 18 inches as well.

Stanley being a redneck had brought a fish basket along to put all the big bluegill in and about six pickerel as well. When he would place another fish in the basket this snake would come shooting out the mesh in the basket each time. I kept quiet and did not mention it to him. Later I saw a big snake curled up on an overhanging tree as we glided underneath it. No word said again. I am in a canoe and did not wish to freak him out and go overboard. So I kept my mouth shut.

Oddly we had not seen the old man or the NY'er guy since we started our trip three hours ago. I decided to wait at the next big pool for them. All of sudden the woods burst alive with gunshot after gunshot going off. Loud as hell and then I see the old man and the NY'er paddling as fast they can past us. The NY'er is screaming snake snake snake..and leaves us in there wake. We catch up and ask what that loud blast was and the NY'er produces from his underwear a snub nose hammerless 38 and says a snake tried to get them so he blasted it. Right over the old mans head. The old man was distraught at being shot at several times just above his head. The big old snake lay dead in the boat and bloody as hell.

After they calmed down I asked if they had caught any thing and they had not. They lost all there lures a while ago. Now we had a good 50 fish caught and I was in shock still a little. I divided my tackle box with them and sent them ahead. We must have caught all the fish so that is why they had not caught a fish according to them. We waited about twenty minutes and proceeded on catching fish after fish.

We get to this gut that went out a good ways out and tell the redneck to toss that little popper he has on his second rod way back there and pop it a couple of times. He puts the lure in the tree above him not once but six times and just starts cursing like crazy. It is mid–day and temps are almost 100 degrees and the deer fly are biting us good. So he kinda lost it for a bit. He breaks off the lure and I hit the branch with a paddle and falls in to the water beside the boat and I scoop it up. Tie it on my little spinning rod and cast it way back into the gut. Two little pops and it gets crushed by a big old pickerel. It leaps and jumps and comes to boat after a good fight. The redneck scoops it up and it slides down between his fingers bam the top hook sticks deep in his shin. He screams loudly and starts a litany of curse words. I hand him the pliers and he rips the hook from his shin while the fish is all over the place. He screams and holds the fish up squeezing the pickerel hard and says proudly "**** you fish" . At that moment it wiggles just right and slips between his fingers and the top hook embeds deep into his fingers. I do mean deep at this point. Now we have a screaming cursing redneck and a large pickerel flipping about and driving the wee little hooks of the popper deeper and deeper into his index finger and bird finger. This goes on for a bit till he stomps the life out of the fish.

Now we have a dilemma and I need to calm things down. Really need to clam things down. So I remove the fish from the equation and cut the o-ring on the top hook.
Fingers are hooked together badly. I cut the hooks apart and one has an exit but the other is in the bone at the joint. I soak the fingers in ice for bit and manage to rotate one hook right out and thru. The other will require some surgeon tricks. This will require terra firma so I beach the boat on an old fire road and will begin the loop of line trick. I hook it all up and tell him on the count of three I will back the hook out with the loop of line and downward pressure. One, Two and I yank early on the count. The hook pops right out and he screams and starts running down the road.

Normally it would be all done but Mother Nature wants him to suffer even more. As he screams running down the road he runs right thru a swarm of deer fly sucking water from the wet sand. Up came two billion hungry deer fly and he starts whacking them with his bloody fingers and they get even more aggressive. He turns covered head to toe in those fly's , blood and starts running towards me. Blood is everywhere and I manage to create a deet cloud with the remaining spray. It works and they stop biting me and him a little.

Back in the canoe we start to laugh a bit but wait we are not done yet.

Temps hit 102 that day and we used up gallons of water and two cans of bug spray surviving the trip and we are only half way to the pickup point. We decide to paddle and not fish much. We catch up the the NY'er and the old man and they have caught two fish but have lost all there lures again. So we just paddle to the pickup and make the cell call for pickup. 40 minutes later my boat arrives and my buddy says he good news and bad news. Good news is he has cold beer in the cooler. The bad news is he does not have enough fuel to tow us out. After some thought on the matter I sent him back for the other boat with a full tank. The redneck and the NY'er hop on the boat and they are gone leaving us to tow the other canoe for the next three hours. Where the hell is he? So the old man and I work our way out to the main river and it is dark by now. Lights in the distance is my other boat and my buddy arrives again and tows us 300 yards to the ramp.

Day is over and it is 11pm and I am a little tired…

Capt Mike

[brushhog]

Thanks for the story. Great fishing stories keep us Northern guys going this time of year! I would like to see that hook removal trick done in person... but on someone other than me!

[bassinbob]

That is a great story. I can just see all the fun going on. Sounds like a good movie could be made out of that trip.

Bob

[texasbasser]

thats an awesome story captmike!

[keithdog]

I am laughing so hard here, which at your expense is shamefull, LOL. But it's a great story. One I hope never to experience anything like it.

[3dkicker]

Your last two posts are a little disturbing but knowing the crew that is planning on coming to the 3-4 day outing on the Dragon this Labor Day I think we may make one of your funny stories I've seen Moose scare little children with one of his early morning belches!! And you have to ask him about his date with the "possum".

[skeeter944]

good story captain! thanks for all these,they are a great reads!

[bassintxlady]

sounds like a day in the office for you is truly an adventure to be had.......thanks for sharing.....

[flbassman]

Thanks for the story, it sure was a good one