Della and the dealer and a cat named blue— or, in the song, was it a dog named blue? Anyway the time of the year was early fall, and I had camped on Red River at the “Mother of all fishing holes.” I came to the river to work. I couldn’t ignore the opportunity to do a little fishing while I
worked, though. My rod and reel was fishing while I sat on the bank and peeled the bark from cedar poles.
I had no warning … any bite or twitch of the rod or anything. Suddenly there was a gigantic splash. I looked up from my peeling just in time to see what appeared to be dynamite exploding in the river. For some reason I glanced over at my fishing pole and it was bent double … and fixing to leave. What ever it was had hit the end of my line.
After thirty minutes of "Something Big" having its way with me I landed a giant blue catfish. I tied her onto a quarter inch rope, and staked her out in the river.
I was in for a surprise when I got ready to go home. No, she didn’t get away! I untied her and wrapped the rope around my hand to drag her out on the bank. She went into a wild twisting, rolling frenzy. One more roll and she would have cut my hand off! I learned a valuable lesson, never double the rope around your hand; especially on a fish this big.
I did not realize the size of Mrs. Blue until I got her home and hung her onto my cotton scales. WoW! Seventy eight pounds!
