What's your favorite Sport?

[Andrew]

Where the hell is fishing at? Fishing is a sport ... sort of.

I think that Poogie's post right above yours could be considered "fishing."  Definitely puts an edge on the action, rather than the normal stereotype of someone asleep in a boat with a reel in their hands.

[CheezeFlixz]

Where the hell is fishing at? Fishing is a sport ... sort of.

I think that Poogie's post right above yours could be considered "fishing."  Definitely puts an edge on the action, rather than the normal stereotype of someone asleep in a boat with a reel in their hands.

Hey trying standing slightly sauced in a canoe, beer in one hand, rod in the other and not fall out ... now that's a sport.

[Poogie]

Well if you have that honkin.....I say honkin shark behind you, you won't have to stand long....   

[Scott]

Hunting and Fishing aren't sports. They're food. 

[CheezeFlixz]

Hunting and Fishing aren't sports. There food. 

They're sports food.

[Dennis]

Hey trying standing slightly sauced in a canoe, beer in one hand, rod in the other and not fall out ... now that's a sport.
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When our daughter was about 11 years old we went to Big Bear lake in the mountains for a picnic, it was on a Saturday so there were quite a few people up there but we found a good spot on the lake shore. there were 10 to 12 pine trees on one side and about 10 to 15 feet away on the other side was a large manzinita bush, so it was sort of like a private beach. We noticed a couple of young guys packing in all sorts of gear to the other side of the manzinita, rods, tackle boxes, a couple large duffel bags, something that looked like a rifle case and a large ice chest that turned out to be full of brewskis. They started fishing from the shore and drinking from the ice chest, their conversation got louder and louder, punctuated by the sound of pop tops, they started cussing out the fish, had a few more beers, decided to wade out and fish. Now we could see and hear them, they could barely stand but every so often one would take the empties back and return with 2 fresh ones, they still had no luck. Heard one say "I know what'll get these little f*****s", he went back out with a fishing bow, sort of like a harpoon except it's a bow and arrow set up with a reel, had an arrow nocked but not drawn and he went staggering around for a couple of minutes before his buddy called him back, said he had a great idea. Now we hear the sound of an air pump and then they come paddling into view in an inflatable canoe, each with a rod and a beer. They realized that they only brought one beer apiece so one hopped out of the canoe and waded to the ice chest, took back a six pack. These two floated around drinking and trying to fish without falling out of the boat. We had found them to be funny and entertaining, we were making up stories about the two fearless fishermen and the giant beer monster, this had been going on for hours but it was time to leave. As we were packing up the two guys paddled to shore, heard more talk about the ***damn fish, then they come into sight again, one paddling, the other was sitting in the front of the canoe, holding the bow with a nocked arrow, he didn't draw back on the bow, thank you God, but they looked to the three of us like an illustration in one of Kari's books, she said something like there's Hiawatha, the mighty fishing guy and we laughed so hard we had to put our stuff down. Then Kari runs down to the lake and picks up a dead carp she saw, runs over to their fishing site and leaves it, I asked why she did that and she said "so the mighty Hiawatha's squaw will have something to cook tonight" We've laughed about these two guys for years. 

[CheezeFlixz]

We always take a few brews out fishing but never get plastered ... mainly because we fish at Reelfoot Lake which is a swamp and you have to have either Jon Boats or Canoes do to the fact that the Cypress knees will bust the bottom out of most boats, but never fear it's only about 3 feet deep in most places. You only have to worry about the 20 feet of mud and snapping turtles, snakes and that fun stuff. Reelfoot is a lake you can get lost on quick if you don't know your way around, canoe trail run all through the swamp to many hard find fishing holes. So you don't want to get to lit or you might end up swamp food, no cell signal but gps will work provided you have an up to date boat trail map, as they change quickly.
We have a blast.

Got to deal with having this crap in my backyard ...

[Dennis]

I'm curious, wasn't Reelfoot lake formed by an earthquake and named by Daniel Boone? I seem to recall reading that somewhere but can't find the book now. (I just realised that I could probably look it up on-line, someday I'll get used to this computer.) Gorgeous picture my friend, most people here would kill for a view like that in their back yard, I'm sure there's a down side to it but right now I can't think of one, you're a lucky guy.

[CheezeFlixz]

Downside ... bugs lots and lots of bloodsucking bugs.

As for the history of the lake, don't think Boone ever made it this far west in Ky during his explores, not to mention his was getting pretty old by the time the lake was said to have been formed, he would have been about 80 then and a bit old to be tramping through wilderness, killing bears and naming things. LOL.
Legend has it it was named after a Chickasaw Indian chief that had one badly deformed foot and one "Real Foot" and was known as Chief Real Foot (His people called him Kalopin, meaning Reelfoot.) Anyway the spelling ended up as Reelfoot and there was are.
Story is the earthquake of 1811-1812 formed the lake and the Mississippi River flowed backwards for anything from 12 hours to 3 days. Not much is said about the lake prior to 1811 as there hardly any people in the area then or now for that matter. So it has never really been proven if that story is true or not to my knowledge. But it makes for some good stories.
In the ca. 1890's the guy(s) that owned the land tried unsuccessfully to drain the lake to make more farm land, and basically ticking off the locals which resulted in night rider raids and shootin', killin' around the lake. Resulting in the lake being made public domain in TN and KY, so that put a stop to that.

Currently the lake is in need of a new spillway, from one of the trench lines dug to drain it over a century ago, but again farmer are up in arms claiming it will flood farm land. As it would raise the water level about 2 feet. Now seeing how some of these guys are my neighbors we don't see eye to on this issue as I think tourism would be a better income as fall and winter is hunting and spring and summer is fishing. I mean major of both, 1000 upon 1000 come in and to a remote area like this, that's a lot in this remote area. As I have a quite a bit of land on, near and around the lake, but do not farm it and have let it return to nature so to say, I'm not to popular with this group. Anyway that's local politics, sure you don't want to hear that.

Yes it's great having a lake that than in the backyard, that is not a picture of my backyard BTW, but it's pretty close to it. I was to lazy to upload a photo so I grabbed one online, LOL.

Hope that's enough info, if not I know plenty more.

[ER]

Tennis, I almost played on the tour.