A fisherman's yarn

Page 10

A way of entertainment for fishermen, is by way of yarn.

Most fishermen, after a day of fishing would sit around a campfire sharing stories on their best catches.

The rational behind the yarns was to see who could tell the biggest and best fish stories.

There's two northern fishermen that occasionally get a chance to meet and still share a few fish stories. These encounters usually draw a crowd.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit in on one of these encounters, and would like to share a mini version of their fish story with the readers of Windspeaker.

Ernest Micheals of Fort McMurray and James Augier of Uranium City, have for a number of years taken pleasure in trying to outdo each others stories.

Augier: Hey Ray, have you ever caught a fish, that you were actually able to eat off of for a month?

Micheals: Don't tell me you got a whale in the Athabasca Lake?

Augier: No, but last winter when I had gone out by myself, one day to set a net. And the very next day when I went to visit the net, I could hardly pull in the net.

I was sorry I didn't bring one of my sons along, now.

It took me a long time, but I finally pulled my net in. It was not only loaded with fish, but one of the fish was so big it tore my net really bad.

Well, I loaded the fish into my sleigh, and I had a rough time getting it to fit in my sleigh.

That fish provided me and my family with a lot of meals.

Micheals: That must of been quite a fish. That reminds me of the time I caught an old lamp in my fish net, and you know what? The lamp must of been a couple hundred years old. It was the

kind that the old explorers like Captain Cook, most likely had used.

I couldn't believe it though. The light in the lamp was still on.

Augier: Come on Ray, that's impossible.

Micheals: Well, James I see it this way. If you take off a couple of yards from the length of your fish story, I'll blow out the light in my story.

That's all till next time.