RILEY CARTER BENEFIT THIS SATURDAY

“I hope we can get our last keeper redfish before that storm hits us,” said Rud Jenkins while launching another cast toward the small drain.”“You are so pessimistic,” chided his lifelong fishing buddy, Walt Fulmer.“Put your cell phone up and keep casting!”

“My cell phone is in the truck,” responded Rud, “just look behind you.”The incessant taunting never ends with these two Houston anglers.I was convinced that Bob Crew and Gene Locke owned the top spot for incessant picking, but that was prior to fishing with Rud and Walt.

I have fished these two gentlemen for the past ten years and nothing has changed since their first trip.They went to school together from the first grade through high school, hired in on the same day and worked at the same company for thirty-five years, live in the same neighborhood and go to the same church.

Is it any wonder that none of their children now live anywhere near the Houston area!

Rud was indeed right about the approaching thunderstorm.Rather than push our luck, we ran back to the landing and climbed out of the boat just as it started to rain.By the time it quit raining, the duo had already put together yet another challenge match.

Every cast and every statement is challenged with these two, but this one had rules and a prize for the winner.More importantly, I would share in the prize as well.

They decided that rather than dodge thunderstorms, they would fish for bass in the river and bayous.They could possibly catch their final keeper red and I would keep score in the bass catching event.The loser would buy me and the winner a shrimp basket at Judice’s.

The catch was that I would lay out four lures that the bass might hit and they would each pick just one based on a coin toss.Rud won and picked a quarter ounce spinner bait and Walt settled for a three-inch Swim Bait.

When we called it quits at noon, Rud had caught their final keeper red, but lost the bass contest 28 to 20.Probably less than half of the bass would have made the 12-inch mark, but that is a lot of bass in less than two hours.It is even more impressive when considering the number of lady fish they had to deal with as well.

Rud actually caught three more keeper redfish that earned him little more than one final derisive assessment of his fishing skills. “I knew I was going to win when you picked that stupid spinner bait,” said Walt when he handed his best friend the tab for dinner!

Ross Smith and Luke McFarland can also attest to the incredible number of small bass doing their thing on the river after winning the Tuesday afternoon series championship.It really wasn’t a very good indicator as to how good the bass fishing has been,” pointed out Smith.

“We weighed in a little under ten pounds and our winning big bass didn’t make the three pound mark,” but the catching has been much better than that lately.” In spite of the lower than expected totals, Trey said that he and Luke easily fished their way through seventy-five bass over the course of the day.That’s a lot of catching and releasing!

On a far more serious note, a local 17 year old high school bass fisherman is currently fighting for his life and he and his family can use both your prayers and support.Riley Carter suffered a stroke while night fishing with his Dad and was air lifted to Children’s Medical Hospital where he has undergone multiple surgeries over the past two months.

Friends and family are sponsoring a Barbeque Benefit and auction at VFW Hall 2775 in Orange starting at 10 a.m. this Saturday to help offset mounting medical bills.This isn’t supposed to happen to kids…See ya there!

Bubba Sparrow reported that the SETX Fishing Series fished their final tournament of the year last Thursday and the winners once again broke the ten pound for a combination of the largest trout and redfish.That total has been a challenge due to the difficulty in locating solid trout in Sabine lake.

Bubba added that they are hosting a benefit tournament out of the S.A.L.T. Club for Raymond Presley on Sept. 8^th .This will be a team event with a $100 entry fee.Each team can weigh in two slot redfish and there will be a side pot as well.

They will also auction off an AR-15 with the winning ticket to be drawn at 4:30 at the tournament.