Speaker 1: The summer of twenty seventeen, I had a day off
Speaker 1: and I was fishing on the Lower Mississippi River near Osceola, Arkansas.
Speaker 1: I was anchored in the water below a sandbar when
Speaker 1: a summer storm started brewing. I watched it for a while,
Speaker 1: trying to decide what track it was going to take,
Speaker 1: whether to run from it or see if it would
Speaker 1: go around me. I knew it wasn't going around me
Speaker 1: when the wind hit me, swinging the boat on the
Speaker 1: anchor line right into the current. I gathered my gear
Speaker 1: and reeled in my lines, knowing that wind was bringing
Speaker 1: a nasty storm with it. I started the motor and
Speaker 1: I went up river away from the storm a couple
Speaker 1: of miles until I found what I was looking for.
Speaker 1: On that part of the river, the banks are separated
Speaker 1: from the main channel by small islands and places. Most
Speaker 1: are just old sandbars, but I knew about one with
Speaker 1: some trees at the upper end. They might block the wind,
Speaker 1: and the low overhanging willows is a place I could
Speaker 1: park the boat and avoid some of the rain. I
Speaker 1: tied off and I wrapped a tarp around myself just
Speaker 1: as the rain started, and I hunkered down to wait
Speaker 1: it out. I looked up into a cove created by
Speaker 1: the island, and I noticed something moving on the bank
Speaker 1: two hundred yards away. Now I'm only guessing, but it
Speaker 1: looked like it was eight feet tall. It was dark,
Speaker 1: and it was hairy. It walked down the bank until
Speaker 1: it was waste deep in the water, and then slowly
Speaker 1: began walking around, indifferent to the rain and wind, and
Speaker 1: it was working its way toward the end of the cove.
Speaker 1: I was wondering what the heck this thing was doing
Speaker 1: and what I was looking at when I realized what
Speaker 1: it was doing. Now, Asian carp are an invasive species
Speaker 1: in the river. If they're startled, several will jump straight
Speaker 1: out of the water. Sometimes they'll land in your boat.
Speaker 1: This thing was scaring the carps so that they would jump,
Speaker 1: and then he was swatting them onto the bank with
Speaker 1: his hand. I saw it connect with several the fish,
Speaker 1: flying pinwheel style toward the bank, and then the rain
Speaker 1: fell in buckets. I could hardly see this thing anymore.
Speaker 1: The last I saw of it, though, it was gathering
Speaker 1: its meal from the bank, and I could make out
Speaker 1: that it was heading up into the trees with a
Speaker 1: mess of fish in its big hands. I think that
Speaker 1: creature had a good meal that afternoon. Uh, just one
Speaker 1: story in this podcast. I thought this was great. I
Speaker 1: kind of identified with it because I've been on the
Speaker 1: river several times up in that part of the country.
Speaker 1: That's a wide area of the Mississippi River. It moves
Speaker 1: pretty fast through there. You know, there's some pockets in
Speaker 1: the Mississippi River that are eighty and one hundred feet deep.
Speaker 1: All my life, I thought that river was maybe ten
Speaker 1: feet deep the most. But I was involved in the
Speaker 1: steel industry, the steel making industry for a while, and
Speaker 1: all those mills that are being built and producing steel
Speaker 1: on the Mississippi River up there close to Osceola and
Speaker 1: Blivel when they build their harbors. There was a guy
Speaker 1: there one time telling me, he goes man, that river's
Speaker 1: one hundred feet deep in that spot. I couldn't believe that.
Speaker 1: That just blew me away, and it scared me because
Speaker 1: I always thought, well, if I ever if you ever
Speaker 1: come out of the boat and the Mississippi River, you're
Speaker 1: probably gonna be okay. But there's suckholes, and there's whirlpools,
Speaker 1: and there's debris floating down the river. All the time.
Speaker 1: Just get to the bank as quick as you can.
Speaker 1: But I never knew it was that deep, and that's
Speaker 1: where all those big snapping turtles go. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It just kind of spook me. Anything underwater that you
Speaker 1: can't see is kind of spooky. It's kind of like sharks.
Speaker 1: You know you can't see them, but you know they're
Speaker 1: gonna come up from the bottom in each you. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I love the story. I thought it was really good,
Speaker 1: and I put some chickens in this video. People have
Speaker 1: been asking to see my chickens. I quit showing them
Speaker 1: about a year ago because for years every other video
Speaker 1: I did, I would show the chickens only because I'm
Speaker 1: not a visual YouTube creator. I don't create a lot
Speaker 1: of visual stuff. I kind of like doing that, but
Speaker 1: with this podcast it's not necessary, so I just concentrate
Speaker 1: on reading the stories. But it was kind of the
Speaker 1: only thing around my house I could film, and I
Speaker 1: just didn't realize how much people like to watch chickens.
Speaker 1: I guess if you don't have any around your place,
Speaker 1: it's fun to watch them pack around. And if I'm honest,
Speaker 1: in the summertime, I'll take breaks and put out a
Speaker 1: lawn chair right here in front of my little work shock,
Speaker 1: and I'll just watch the chickens scratch around. This time
Speaker 1: of year, they don't there's not a lot of insects
Speaker 1: and things around for them to forge on, so I
Speaker 1: feed them a little more scratch just to keep them
Speaker 1: full fat and happy, keep them laying eggs. And they
Speaker 1: are laying eggs. Anyway, it's fun to have them around.
Speaker 1: And there's the chickens, and I'll do more chicken videos.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take me long to go out and throw
Speaker 1: some scratch out and show the chickens. So I'll show
Speaker 1: more of the chickens, and I'll start putting the GoPro
Speaker 1: on and getting our bike rides in the morning with
Speaker 1: the dogs. I don't you know, I don't have all
Speaker 1: my dogs anymore. My two big ones died and I've
Speaker 1: just got two little ones and one medium sized dog.
Speaker 1: So it's uh. I guess they're fun to watch too. Anyway.
Speaker 1: I just I had no idea of people love to
Speaker 1: watch these chickens, but there it is. Now you got
Speaker 1: some chickens. So anyway, it's only story. I'm putting this podcast.
Speaker 1: I got some things to do today. I'll be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow and I may put another one out, but they
Speaker 1: will start coming at a more regular interval. And I
Speaker 1: appreciate you so much for hanging with me, and we'll
Speaker 1: see you guys on the next one. Thanks,