I know this is not a fishing subject in general, but Eddy Arnold died today.
He would have been 90 next week. I post this not just because I loved his music, but he was also a Boater and loved the sport of fishing. I met him by accident one day on the Cumberland river, in Tennesse. I was fishing with a friend and a older, but pristine motor yacht, not a million dollar dream but a sensible craft for rivers or close to shore ocean travel pulled along side of us while we were headed back to a launch site. A barge had gotten side ways in the channel and we were held up waiting for the crew to get things straight. to our surprise the gentleman in the wheel house gave us a wave and when we were close enough the lady on board ask us how the fishing had been. As we gave her the sad report that we had no business fishing that part of the river, as we had never fished there before and had very little luck Eddy joined her on the rear of their boat, and then we knew just who he was. They were on their trip to the Gulf and down to flordia, a trip he said he like to make once a year at least. He really was a Country Gentleman, We were just two good ol boys in an over sized jon boat and he treated us like his nieghbor, at that time I guess he was in his early seventies, I just hope at that age I could be able to take a boat from Nashville to Key west. It would be a challenge for me at my age now but he knew his boat and he was a man who captianed his own craft. I know he will be missed in music but for a few he will be remembered as a boater too.
