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Message started by Rat Man on Nov 9th, 2022 at 2:56pm

Title: The Fish Head Outdoorsmen's Club
Post by Rat Man on Nov 9th, 2022 at 2:56pm
    I have been debating whether or not to post this because it's kind of weird.  What the hell....   
   As I've mentioned many times, I was stationed at miserable hell hole Ft. Campbell, Kentucky in the mid seventies after my time in Korea.  There was much great fishing to be had around the base and we fished often.  And we drank heartily when we fished. 
      Guys that age do crazy things while drinking and we were no exception.  I caught a nice fish... I forget whether it was a big Sunny or a Crappy.  I turned to my buddy Al and bit the head clean off of the fish.  That definitely surprised him.  Somehow it snowballed and everyone had to bite the head off of a live fish.  The Fish Head Outdoorsmen's Club was born.  Someone had to be the Grand Poobah of the club.  In that I had bitten the head off of the biggest fish that was me for a while.  But it didn't stop there.  Soon just biting the head off of a fish wasn't enough and other creatures were sacrificed to the cause. 
     For a while Al replaced me as the Grand Poobah by biting the head off of a newt.  Quite a few of the guys were willing to join.  Girls were welcome but none wanted anything to do with it for some reason. Go figure.  I tried to outdo Al by biting the head off of a live eel but its skin was too tough to bite through.  For my trouble all I got was a mouth full of slime.
     After the army the club continued though Al was the only army buddy I kept up with. At the time he lived not too far from my South Jersey home in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.  About  ten years later Al and I were crabbing with some other friends.  There were maybe eight of us on the trip.  There was alcohol of course back then.  I think we were drinking Mad Dog.  I had certainly consumed my share. I decided to perform a feat that would never be outdone.  My friend Gus had just spent fifteen minutes constructing the perfect sandwich.  I had just caught a huge Blue Claw Crab.  This was a really big male.  His pinchers spread about eighteen inches apart.  Just as Gus was about to dig into his sandwich I hollered "Hey, Gus!"  He turned to see me chomp the head off of the crab with one mighty crunch.  I didn't restrict his claws in any way.  I still don't know why he didn't tear my face up.  Of course I'd have barely felt it if he had.  I guess I moved fast enough to avoid injury.  I seriously doubt I could ever repeat the act.   I spit the head into the bay.  I had crab guts streaming down my face.  Gus gave a disgusted "Oh my God" and tossed his sandwich into the bay.  For some reason he lost his appetite.  I didn't think it was possible for a Black guy to turn green but he did.  Somewhere there's a picture of that buried deep in my archives. 
     But that was that. I was the undisputed Grand Poobah of The Fish Head Outdoorsmen's Club forever after that feat. It was never outdone. Crazy poopy you do when you're young.
     My buddy Al passed about a month ago.  We shared some wild times.

Title: Re: The Fish Head Outdoorsmen's Club
Post by IronGoober on Nov 10th, 2022 at 12:12am
Ratman, have you ever read Patrick McManus? sometimes your stories and writing remind me of his short stories.

Title: Re: The Fish Head Outdoorsmen's Club
Post by Rat Man on Nov 10th, 2022 at 11:29am

IronGoober wrote on Nov 10th, 2022 at 12:12am:
Ratman, have you ever read Patrick McManus? sometimes your stories and writing remind me of his short stories.

    Yes I have... Field and Stream.  He is a great story teller.  I'm honored to be mentioned in the same breath. 

Title: Re: The Fish Head Outdoorsmen's Club
Post by Curious Aardvark on Nov 13th, 2022 at 4:26pm
And that's why English fishermen don't drink and fish :-)

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