Over the years I've witnessed mans inhumanity to man from
many perspectives. I've seen it as a soldier in various hot
countries and as a tourist, but the most distressing view was
as a fisherman in my own country. It was not just the acts visited
upon the poor fisherman by the uncouth and sometimes predatory
populace. It was how our modern fisherman has been forced
to adapt to this new 'environment.' He has suffered a "fall from
innocence" in the truest meaning of the phrase. Let me recount
some observations that help to support this thesis.
When I got out of college some 30 years ago I lived near a lake
that had a nice walleye population. There were 5 to 8 people that
would fish them every night off the rip-rap. Nice fish from 10 PM
to 2 AM. A chance to bring home a good fish or two and pleasant
company with friends. It was an almost every night occurrence.
My wife hated that lake. The lake was located in an urban setting
and with people comes problems. Since us old hill billies at that
time usually carried 2-3 hundred dollars with us, a local biker gang
took up robbing fishermen at the lake.
Well I heard the word and carried the 45 from Nam and others did
the same. One night, when I didn't fish, I heard on the news that
several people had been shot and a bunch of motorcycles had
been burned at the lake. They were looking for a large fellow in
a snowmobile suit. I sure knew who that was. I had admired that
suit all winter, and with that Ruger 44 mag he was lucky that all
survived. They never found him and I never fished there again.
I'm sure the incident changed him and it changed me a little too.
Five years ago at a local lake several people had been robbed
and I quit fishing that lake at night. I was talking to the local
game warden I knew and he recounted checking a boat at 2-3
AM and noticing a shotgun in the boat. The boater replied to
the obvious question of why the shotgun,"on this lake it's
required fishing equipment." The warden said that was his
last late night check on that lake.
I was fishing a inner-city lake, that had some real nice bass,
almost every evening. I would get 5-6 nice fish a night, but it
was a rather scary place. The police didn't patrol there after
dark. One night I was motoring back to my van and boat trailer
on my electric and I noticed around 10 or so individuals leaning
up against my van waiting. I took my Browning Gold Trigger
12 out of the rod box and hit the magazine switch which fed a
live one into the chamber. All of a sudden I was all alone. I
never went back.
My local river which is rather shallow is the scene of the next
tale. I heard this third-hand but believe it. A fly fisherman was
fishing the river one afternoon, and it is an afternoon river, when
a monster truck chased him out of the river. The driver was
driving downstream and ran him up on the shore. He unloaded
2 clips from his Glock 19 on the truck which never stopped. I
guess that's why insurance rates are so high.
Lake Erie has had some non-published boat robberies. A boat pulls
up along side and collects all the money. Most I know have a stainless
12 gauge on board now. I favor a Glock 9mm with 124 gr hydro
shocks and a 30 round clip.
Almost every fisherman I've ran across in the last 10 years has at least 2-3
stories of that nature. Real tales of where he or his buddies were
robbed, attacked or molested and the measures they felt they had
to resort to protect themselves.
Only a dummy goes out there unprotected and puts himself
and or his family at risk. I'm not a militant advocate but I can
see that 'good old boys' like rupe have to rethink how and where
we fish.
Isn't this sad? The sad part is that it has changed rupe. Now
old rupe has to think not only of how the fishing will be there,
but how safe he will be there fishing.
One of my old Nam buddies said, "Always turn the other cheek
it may give you a better sight picture."
Isn't this a sad true state of affairs? ~ Old Rupe
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