One nice June morning in 1954, my Dad and I were visiting my Uncle, Shelton Gafford, a large, land owner in Falls County and we drove over the low water crossing of the Brazos river, to his Perry Creek place to fish my favorite stock tank. Catching several Bass, I tied on an injured minnow, a noisy, top water bait, with spinners on each end. Casting out over some coon tail moss, I let it sit for a minute, then I twitched it once and the spinners did their thing and whoosh and wham, a Bass inhaled the plug and headed for the bottom.

From the hit and what I saw of the fish, I knew it was a good one and after trying to “horse” it out of the moss, I slid into the water, freed the line and after a jump filled battle, landed the large Bass. My Dad said, “Boy, that’s the nicest one you’ve caught. Do you have a scale?” Neither one of us had a scale, so I said we should go over to John T. Scott’s store on the Marlin/Lott road, weigh the fish, then grab some cheese and sardines, for lunch.

On John T’s scales the Bass was just over 5 pounds, a new record for me. The cheese, a piece of pie size wedge, cut out of the hoop of Longhorn cheese, crackers and sardines, washed down with R.C. Colas, was a fitting end to an eventful morning.