Gubby Tuba and The Grand Lunker

Once upon a time there was a boy named Gubby Tuba! Now as you can imagine, Gubby Tuba is a terrible name for a little boy, but that was the name he had to live with. Gubby not only had a very strange name, he also had a most difficult life; for Gubby was born into a poor family which lived in an old run down shack near the swamp outside the city limits. It was a lonely place, just off the old highway down by the old abandoned mill, where the river turned into the swamps.

Yeah, poor Gubby Tuba was so poor he didn't even own his own pair of shoes, but would find odd shoes along the river after high waters and wear them until something else came along. No friends did he have, for who wanted such a poor and odd shoe boy hanging around, any ways who wanted a friend named Gubby Tuba?

Well even with all the troubles of a poor life, Gubby still had more coming his way when his father had to go away and his little sister came down with some terrible disease, that only doctors could pronounce the name. Oh, such sorrows for a little boy, no one to listen to him, no one to play with and no where to go except the dirty old river behind his shaky and hole riddled house. So the river and fishing became his way of life.

Everyday, from morning to night he walked the rivers edge and fished its shady ponds and deep pools , catching enough fish and finding enough shoes to keep him and his sister Bondie happy. Now and then a good fish might come along and grab his hook and they would eat for a few days and if the river was kind to him he might catch enough to trade at the little country store called Bethany's, down the way.

Good old Mr. Hookiebrook {the owner of Bethany's market} was just about the only friend Gubby Tuba had. He would always tell his old fishing stories about the wonderful old days and the monster fish they use to catch at the mill pond. "Big ones, they were, to big for us to drag home," Mr. Hookiebrook would say with that far time gone look in his eyes.

Now and then he would pull out his picture book and show Gubby some of the photos of the better catches from the old days and Wow, sure enough, they were really big!

"A fish like that could make you rich these days, with all the fishing books and records you know," Gubby would hear Mr. Hookiebrook say. These stories put a seed of hope into Gubby and so he set his heart on the dream of the big one, which he just knew was still hiding somewhere in one of those old deep black ponds. If he could only catch a good one, he might make enough for paying the doctors to make his sister well and help Mom out with paying bills and food.

Everyday from brightest dawn, after chores, to latest night Gubby was gone fishing. He cast the biggest, the best and the juiciest worms, the fattest grasshoppers and the strongest bugs into the pools, watched them sink and dreamed his dream. But the entire summer came and went but still there was no dream fish and Gubby was so disappointed in all the time he had wasted along the river.

It was already Autumn, Gubby had given up his dream and accepted his

fate in life and stopped going to the river and decided to hunt quail with his sling shot instead. Then one day Mr. Hookiebrook told him another story about the last great fish, the Grand Lunker" it was called, and was still known to be hiding in the river somewhere but no one knew where. Now Gubby knew that he was the only one who really knew the river and that if there was such a Grand Lunker, he was the one to get it. But what if someone else caught it, when he had given up? That was a possibility, for many boys with their fathers fished the river in trying to catch the old mystery fish.

Among all the fishing folks the fish had become known as the "Grand Lunker." For it was rumored to have been seen and it was as thick as an old tree stump and long as a log!

"Hey, that is funny, I have seen something like that in the waters which looked like a big log, but it couldn't have been a fish, or could it have been," Gubby asked himself!

With new inspirations, early every morning Gubby would do his chores and was then off to the river by dawn and found those special huge worms for his few good hooks. One dreamy day, as the early cool breeze rippled the surface of one shadowy pond Gubby fell asleep with his pole in the pond and he dreamed a dream about a grand fish.

Now in his dream he saw a very old and proud fish, getting older and fatter. It was so old it had wrinkles and it seemed as all the fight had gone out of it. The curious thing was that this great fish was deciding that he had been around too long and thought to make himself famous but the great fish could not find anyone worthy enough to be caught by. But then he "The Grand Lunker" remembered a little ragged boy searching the waters for that single great catch of his life.

Then and there the Grand Lunker knew who's line he would take, but not without a great and final fight! He would only give up if that boy was determined enough and was willing to give it his all and so the Grand Lunker patiently waited for Gubby the boy fisherman.

Gubby awoke suddenly, when his pole bent nearly double and was almost pulled out of his arms. He jumped awake and shook his head clear just in time before he was nearly dragged into the pond. Oh no he cried, its the biggest thing I ever got, but my line will never hold, I got to play this one right. He pulled back lightly, the line was yanked tight and whatever was on the end dove for deep waters. "It will never do, I just am to small to fight this alone, but I ain't got no other choice," Gubby shouted out to himself! He pulled, the line pulled back twice as hard, he stepped back and pulled, straining the line until it was nearly invisible, but by a miracle it held.

Back and forth, back and forth, then he saw the water break open like a tree splitting with lightening. It was the biggest fish he ever did see, even bigger than in any of those books in Mr. Hookiebrooks shop. One huge eye looked over at Gubby as if to see who might have been trying to catch him and the Grand Lunker snorted in defiance, declaring with its power and fury not to be caught and dove deep with a twist and yanked its head with a power of many years of battle.

The Grand Lunker came alive and thought, "Hey, this catching me stuff is not such a good idea, don't know if I want to go this route and with that his old fighting fury returned. Gubby's pole suddenly snapped like a twig but he grabbed the line tight and wrapped it tight around a stump and the line stretched tighter and tighter, so tight that the wind played a tune of "Catch me if you can" on it.

There was nothing Gubby could do now, the fish was just to big. He had only one chance, tie the line off, hope no one finds it and run over to Mr. Hookiebrooks and borrow his tractor. That was a ridiculous thought, but what else could he do?

So off he ran, faster than lightening. He rushed into Mr. Hookiebrooks store and gushed out the words with an excited voice, and his old friend told him "Sure, Gubby, you go ahead and take my tractor and come on back with that old Lunker, I'll be here waiting for you and that Grand Fish!"

Gubby jumped onto the tractor, played heck getting it started but finally it coughed and sputtered off down the road towards the river. Gubby could only hope that the fish was still on the line and sure enough, when he got there the line was still tight, tied up around the old stump.

Slowly, Gubby backed down the side of the slippery bank and brought the tractor to the line, where he tied it to the pulling ball and climbed back up and slowly geared the tractor up the bank, pulling the line tighter than ever.

Inch by inch, the line stretched tighter and tighter and slowly, ever so slowly, the line stretched far beyond Gubby's imagination and gradually began to pull that old hidden giant of a fish from the bottom of its deep whole. The tractor slowly climbed up the edge of the rivers bank until the fishes monster head broke the surface and Gubby saw that every bird flew away out of fright!

Old Grand Lunker thrashed and shook, but this time he was hooked deep and nothing he could do would break the line and gradually, ever so gradually, he gave in to the pull of the line and gave himself over to the fame that he was so deserving of.

The tractor pulled onto the flat field and Gubby jumped off to see over the edge of the bank and sure enough, there it was! He saw the largest, the biggest, truly a monster of a fish, the Grand Lunker itself, the biggest thing he could imagine. it was huge, longer than the tractor, as big or bigger than an old oak trunk, it was to big to imagine.

The tractor had a hard time pulling it up the bank but Gubby found an old barn door and pulled the Grand Lunker onto it making it a slide. Soon the prized fish was moving smoothly over the grassy field and down the road to Mr. Hookiebrooks country store. There, Gubby drove the tractor right up front and stopped at the door, calling out to Mr. Hookiebrook, "Come out here fast and look at the Grand Lunker I got!"

When Mr. Hookiebrook came hobbling out of the screen door and saw the size of the monster fish he nearly fell down the steps in excitement! Within minutes word spread to every house and farm and soon a crowd gathered around the Grand Lunker, truly it was an amazing sight.

Immediately Mr. Hookiebrook was on the phone to the TV stations and the fishing magazines and the news spread all over the country, that Gubby Tuba had caught the biggest fish ever, so big he had to drag it home on a barn door with a tractor. Mr. Hookiebrook became Gubby's manager of the Grand Lunker and the fish was carefully measured and weighed, for it was a prize, a trophy fish of nearly 400 pounds, measuring 6 foot 10 inches long!!!

After all the press had taken their pictures and the excitement calmed down, the Sports Fishing Club offered Gubby the most handsome price and bought the fish from Gubby for more money than he knew existed and now Gubby was famous and so was the Grand Lunker!

That old Grand Lunker is now stuffed and hangs in the Capital Office of the Fish and Game department with Gubby's name on a plaque right under the famous fish, which takes up nearly one entire wall!

With Gubby's new found fame and with the money from both the sales and endorsements from every Fish and Tackle company, Bondie had her operation that winter, Mama paid the bills and they moved into a better house but still near to the river.

Now Gubby could go to school because he had at least a matching pair of shoes to wear. And by now everyone has accepted him and his funny name and Gubby is a famous fishing hero, that no one has out fished since!

Contact Author at:

michael@ticktalk.net