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Nearly 300 Years Of Experience And Fishing Stories

Luke, Stubby, and crew showing off their catch for the day
Luke Clayton
Luke, Stubby, and crew showing off their catch for the day

Lake Fork- Round up a foursome of still very active old guys, all a few months away from their 68th birthday and chances are pretty good they have some “stories”. After all, there is just under 300 combined years of living amongst this group, plenty of time to amass untold life experiences, many of which are just down right funny!
 
Put this aforementioned foursome together in a catfishing boat for several hours with steady action on channel catfish and chances are also good many of these “stories” will come to light! This boat is exactly where “this” old guy spent a recent morning and after almost 30 years as an outdoors writer, spending countless hours afield and on the water, I can truly say I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. If our antics were filmed, I truly believe our outing would rate a spot on prime time TV, the episode might be titled “Four old guys telling it all”! 
 
I was in the company of friends on this outing, a quite  diverse group of friends that included Chuck Roy, the editor of this fine publication, Jerry Miller, the now retired Mayor of Yantis, Texas and kingpin of the Yantis Catfish Classic and Stubby Stubblefield, maker of Lake Fork’s most popular catfish bait named appropriately , “Stubbys”. I’ve fished with Stubby several times and we became friends a couple years ago, fishing trips with this catfish guru have been the fodder for several articles I’ve written for my newspaper columns and a couple of magazine features. After the final weigh in at the Yantis Catfish Class early this summer, I introduced Stubby to Miller and Roy, an invite from Stubby ensued and plans were made for a fishing trip were made. We old guys don’t fool around; we’ve learned to pack as much fun into life as possible!
 
Stubby occasionally guides some of his long time clients but his bait business requires a good bit of he and his wife Sandy’s time. Stubby has fished all over the country and rates Lake Fork as his number one overall favorite channel catfish lake.
 
“Catching catfish at Fork is easy, providing you use the right bait,” says Stubby with a grin. “For the next few months, well right into fall and throughout the winter, catching fish is easy. Simply find a change in bottom contour, the top of a hump, the convergence of two creek channels or possibly point of a tree line in water 20-30 feet deep, bait a couple of spots with soured grain or range cubes. Feed them and they will come!”
 
The four of us “old guys” are currently concocting a name for our group. “Old Guys Fishing Club”, “The Story Tellers”, “Geriatric fishing support group”, “Old School Hookers”? We haven’t as yet settled on an appropriate name but we vowed to have one chosen by our next outing.  This won’t be the last time we get together!   

As KETR Operations Manager, Kevin Jefferies is responsible for making sure you hear what you’re supposed to be hearing on FM 88.9 and ketr.org.
Outdoors writer/radio host/book author Luke Clayton has been addicted to everything outdoors related since his childhood when he grew up hunting and fishing in rural northeast Texas. Luke pens a weekly newspaper column that appears in 34 Texas newspapers and is Editor at Large for Extreme Hog Hunter Magazine, Bowhunting Adventures and East Texas Outdoors Magazine and field editor for Dallas Safari Club "Camp Talk" publication. Luke is on the pro staff of Mathews Bows, Smokin' Tex Electric Smokers, and GhostBlind. Follow his columns and listen to his weekly radio show throughout the year and you'll surely get exposed to many facets of the outdoor life.
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