Young Tom Booker was the trouble maker at Arrow Flats. If something was stolen, broken, painted over with graffiti or shot at it was usually Tom who received the first call from the sheriff. So it should of been no surprise to Tom when Sheriff Gibson questioned him about the number of fish he\u2019d been bragging about down at Mel\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Mel\u2019s was the coffee shop in town where all the locals shared breakfast, news and gossip over Mel\u2019s weak bitter coffee. Seems Tom was shooting his mouth off to anyone who would listen about the number of fish he had caught in just half an hour. Sheriff Gibson, armed with this gossip and the complaint phone calls about explosions down at the lake had him very suspicious of young Tom.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow Tom,\u201d Sheriff Gibson questioned through the hay stalk he held in one side of his\u00a0mouth. \u201cAm I to understanding that you caught six rainbow trout and two perch in less than half an hour? At Lake Peed? Yesterday afternoon? Just you,\u2026by yourself?\u201d\u00a0\u201cWhy yes-sir-ee-sir I sure did! And if-in you like Sheriff Gibson you could come with me today and we can catch us some more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow Tom, people think you\u2019re using dynamite to do yer fishin. And we can\u2019t have that round these parts. Understand Tom?\u201d Sheriff Gibson pressed as the brim of his hat touched Toms face.\u00a0\u201cOh no sir, yes sir Officer Gibson.\u201d Tom gulped. \u201cYou go home and get yer poles and nets and bait and maybe yer fly rod with yer famous flys you tie that I\u2019ve herd so much about and meet me down at the wharf?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMeet me in half an hour Tom.\u201d said Sheriff Gibson as he walked to his car.
\nIt was the sheriffs third trip from the car to the wharf with all his fishing gear before he even saw young Tom. He was whistling coming down the dock with what looked like a kids lunch box. \u201cWhere\u2019s yer fishin gear Tom?\u201d Hollered the Sheriff. To which Tom raised the box in his left hand and pointed to it with his right.\u00a0\u201cIf-in yer using dynamite, like I think you are, to catch fish you\u2019ll wind up in the county jail so fast it\u2019ll make\u201d \u2026 \u201cSheriff,\u201d Tom interrupted, \u201cI promise to you that \u2018I\u2019 am not using dynamite today to catch fish. Besides look at all that there equipment you got fer catching fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
They both hopped in the boat, Tom pulled on the motor, and they both set off to Toms secret fishing spot. A cool breeze lightly rippled the top of Peed Lake as Sheriff Gibson was switching from casting to fly fishing. He certainly had all the gear but it just wasn\u2019t working today. He had just tied on his lucky fly to his line when he looked up to see Young Tom holding a lit stick of dynamite.\u00a0\u201cI knew it Tom! You can\u2019t fool an old fisherman like me! I know how many fish are in here and how to catch them the tried and true way and YOU\u201d \u2026 just then\u00a0Young Tom threw the dynamite stick with the quickly shrinking lit fuse to Sheriff Gibson. The sheriff now holding the dynamite started doing some boat capsizing jig when Tom questioned his intentions. \u201cWell sheriff are you gonna just dance around talking or are you gonna go fishin?\u201d<\/p>\n