Rarest Gems

The Rarest gem you will ever discover in this world is a true friend. I, like most people, have a close friends, but only a few. Cecil Miller has been a friend since high school days. Charles (Buster) Turner fits in that same category. David French is a second cousin, but is also a very close friend.

I met Glenn Pool when he came to Kingston as the high school football coach. Someone misinformed him that I knew something about video cameras. He asked me to film the football games for him and I did so for several years. We became friends and fishing buddies. Wendell Wilkins is a friend and so is his cousin, Tommy Vinson. Tommy and I visited about 20 states running beagles and big game hunting.

I believe it was 1980 when I met A.M. "Pete" Jameson at Alberta Creek on Lake Texoma. I was camped there in a borrowed Winnebago and had been to an auction. I got out of my truck with a rifle I had purchased at the auction. Pete was camped nearby and I heard him say, "A Browning automatic 30-06. He came over and inspected my new gun and told me all about its capability. He said I could shoot a 130 grain bullet and hunt antelope, go to a 150 grain bullet for deer. He went on to say that a 180 grain bullet would work for elk and a 220 grain bullet would bring down a grizzly bear. He said, "That's all the gun you will ever need for big game hunting."

I would learn later that Pete was a big game hunter. He had taken several big game trophies in Alaska. They include a moose, Dall sheep, timber wolf, and a grizzly bear. More recently Pete has collected trophy animals from Argentina, Mongolia, and Africa. The giant eland, the gemsbok, and greater kudu were all magnificent animals.

Pere lives and manages a cow/calf ranch near Ranger, TX that is in excess of 3,000 acres. The land supports a healthy population of whitetail deer and Rio Grand turkey. It's been a real privilege and honor to be invited to his ranch to hunt on occasions over the past few yars.

I could fill a book of stories about my friends, but have room here for just one chapter. So, I'll have to skip a lot of things that are interesting, dangerous, amusing, funny, and downright comical.

The year was 1982 when Pete really got my attention. By this time in our relationship I was going by his travel trailer every morning during the first part of June for a cup of coffee on the way to run my trotlines. The lake was up several feet above normal and he had big fish ties to trees out in the water. He had caught five blue catfish that weighed a total of 150 pounds. All were caught on a fly rod while fishing from a float tube. His technique was to spool heavy monofilament line on the reel and attach a wrap around lead sinker about six inches about a 5/0 hook. He used big eating shrimp for bait. By eating, I'm talking about the kind served in fancy restaurant, not the little shrimp normally sold as fish bait.

The five big fish included a 21, 22, 23, and two 42 pound fish. They were caught around large limestone boulders near the shoreline of the lake. The fish come into shallow water typically in early June to spawn.

I soon acquired a float tube and joined the fun. As the years passed and the fishing was somewhat of a bond, Pete and I became the best of friends. One year Pete showed up with two new Cabela "Fish Eagle" graphite 9' fly rods. He handed one to be and said, "That's yours." Before that there were only broken rods every so often when a big fish was caught. These two rods have proven to be every bit as good as advertised. On June 6, 2007 I hooked and landed a 34 pound blue and some 20 minutes later caught one that weighed 47 pounds. The next day Pete caught the mate to my first big fish and it too weighed 34 pounds. Those two old rods were put to the test and prove that they are still durable.

I was told that I should have had someone with a video camera recording me when I caught the two big fish. My comment, "They would have had to follow me for 25 years." I think it was 135 fish for a total of 335 pounds that we caught in June 2007. Lake Texoma went over the spillway again that year and the fishing was very good.

It has been said that you never drop a true friend because you hold them in your heart, not your hands. Also, "To have a friend, you have to be a friend." Thanks friends for being friends.