When I was about 12 years old, my parents were divorced and I lived with my Dad in a house that he bought in Verna Hills in Winchester. Our next door neighbors, Vic and Jenny, were both in their 60's then and they loved to camp and fish below the dam at Cumberland. We all got to know each other pretty good and I always wondered about the fish they were catching, especially wondering since my Dad never took me fishing, so they invited me to go with them one week. My Dad turned me loose with them for the week and I got my first experience with the Cumberland River and Rainbow Trout. That first day we get to the bank a little before 5am and we are walking down into the river bottom, litterally the river bottom for those that don't know (Before the Dam Issues, they would put very little water thru the Dam at night at Cumberland and basically just the "River Channel" of the river was wet and you would litterally walk down into the wet rocks to get to the "Edge" of the river. But when they turn the water loose, time to get out because where you are sitting is 20+ feet under in a matter of a few minutes). Anyways, as we get to the edge I see all these tree trunks out into the water and wonder at first that it is strange to see all these tree trunks basically the same size in a row like that in the water. I then learn that these are fishermen that have waded out into the water to get their bait out even deeper into the river. Vic and Jenny did not wade and therefore, I did not wade either. We sat our folding chairs on the edge and rigged up with corn and salmon eggs with a split shot and casted out. They had picked out a spot that had clear sailing for our cast with none of these waders in front of us initially. I wondered why Vic and I each only had 1 rod but Jenny had 1 like ours (Spinning Rod) but she also had a Baitcaster that looked like it was built in 1722 with a big Sinker, guessing now days a 3/4oz or maybe even a 1oz, with no hook. As I learned out fast, Jenny Johnson can flat out fish, when she set the hook that poor fish was as good as caught no questions asked. Vic is getting madder when he swings and misses, I am getting mad for I am as competitive as the next guy and this 60 year old lady is beating the tar out of both of us, we couldn't fill her jockstrap if we had a dozen pairs of socks each to help fill in the void. She has her limit in literally no time and then ask us if we needed help in catching ours. I did not like it but didn't really care because there would be fresh fish for dinner tonight. She caught a couple more and put them on my stringer then this "Wader" starts to poach into her casting lane. She clears her throat once, to which he turns his head around and looks at her. As more "Waders" start out the other Waders start to fan out even more which poaches even more into her casting lane. She this time tells ths fella with no mix in words that he is getting too close and to get back down the river a bit. He does not say a word. He then moves a couple more steps Up-River which is clearly the opposite direction that she told him a few minutes earlier, and she brings out the BIG BUNS. She reaches down and picks up the Baitcaster, to which Vic tells me to "Watch This with Gleem in his eyes". I said is "she going to hit him", to which Vic says "Not this cast just scare him a little and there has only been 1 guy that did not heed the first warning" She zings that baitcaster with the accuracy of KVD throwing a spinnebait around the buck brush at Barkley and splashes down with about 2 feet to the left of this poacher, and another 2 feet out in front of him to the point that Stevie Wonder and Hellen Keller would have known they were under attack. He turns around and before he can start his griping, She says "The next one will be in the back of your head Sonnie". He says a few choice words in general mind you not directed specifically at her and moves on back downstream just like he was warned to do in the first place. "We" got our 3 limits of trout that morning, I got my first baptismal into trout fishing and also got re-enforced something that I already knew "You just don't mess with Jenny Johnson" She is in her mid 60's, she does have blue hair, she does drive 45 in the fast lane on the interstate, she does cook the best fried fish you have ever tasted, she does make the best fried potatoes to go along with the scrambled eggs for breakfast, AND she knows how to zing that baitcaster with the accuracy to clip a fly's wings at 20 yards and hook and bring in as many rainbow trouts as she wanted to. I knew her for about 6 years before I moved out of my Dad's house for good and she passed a few years after that which means she passed about 15 years ago and I would put the number of rainbows she drug out of Cumberland River in the no telling how many years her and Vic fished it against anyones. I would also bet she made more than one "Wader" leave a few chocolate stripes inside his rubbers with that Baitcaster.
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