Terror In The Night

^“8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” Luke 2:8-9.

Just as the shepherds were terrified from the anomalies that they saw in the Christmas night sky, so was my daughter on one of our most memorable fishing trips.

It was 1993 when I hitched my Skeeter bass boat to my SUV and drove my son, his friend, and my 6 year-old daughter 2 1/2 hours to Tims Ford Lake, which is nestled in the hills of southern middle Tennessee. This deep impoundment is known primarily for its smallmouth bass and somewhat for its, large striped bass or stripers.  The quality of striped bass fishing everywhere is dependent on a good supply of native shad, such as the threadfin. The largest bass caught in Tims Ford was a little over 55 lbs, and that happened many years ago.  These are ocean going fish which have been transplanted to many inland waters by game and fish agencies and do not usually reproduce in their new waters. 

Knowing very little about striper fishing, I had previously hired a local guide and had soaked up as much info as possible during a 5 hour night time trip, when we caught nine to ten fish in the 5-10 lb range using live shad as bait. I had also purchased a nice, aerated shad tank which had been made by a Tims Ford guide in a small factory on the lake. It could keep a dozen or so shad alive for half a day.

After checking into a motel by one of the lake's excellent marinas and purchasing some shad, I got my young crew into their life jackets, connected the "kill" switch to the keyed ignition and fired up my 140 Evinrude. The kill switch will turn off the engine if you fall out of the boat. Not having a kill switch is what was believed to have killed 3 of my former bass club members on Kentucky Lake many years ago when they went overboard, and the boat kept driving in circles around them. They were all veteran fishermen.

It was 9 pm and pitch dark, except for the panorama of heavenly stars, when we left our marina and drove about 10 miles to my chosen deep water cove. The boat had good navigation lights, and I used a hand-held spot light for illumination. The locals do a lot of night time bass fishing and often drive almost full speed, as there are not many obstacles you can hit. 

Our location was surrounded by high hills which were clothed in heavy timber that hid some cabins on their ridges. This vantage point was the beginning of the end of our night's fishing trip as my daughter suddenly started screaming for all she was worth!  The previous week, she had seen the UFO movie "Fire In The Sky”, and with the nearby hills being completely black, she had mistaken some car lights, which were about 400 ft above the water, for an alien spacecraft!!  Let me tell you; she was absolutely scared to death!  Anyone within 5 miles would have thought we were torturing a little girl with a red hot poker.  She would not have made any more noise if a 5 headed, green alien had been hopping up and down on the trolling motor!!  After spending ten minutes trying to calm her down with no success whatsoever, I drove us back to our marina, released the luckiest shad on the lake and got us bedded down for a restless sleep, as my daughter was still not convinced that we were not being invaded from the outer galactic ring.

All and all, it was a huge effort and expense, but I guarantee you that we have never let her live down that alien battle on Tims Ford Lake. And her brother and I always laugh a lot more than she does, the poor thing.

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14