1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Photography
›
3. A photo for Jesse...

Rube Babbitt...Considered the first guy to plant the lovely brook trout in to the Au Sable...This is what all us old trout-bums morph in to eventually Jess...We just sort of wander off in to the woods somewhare never to be seen again!

Haha well if your saying that im a fishbum and will eventually leave it all behind for the sake of trout id have to agree with you ha! Not do bad of a life style i would say. And i love the cigar in his mouth with the narley beard its perfect!

Jess,

I just got back from 11 days up on the Au Sable...I ran in to a local tyer up there who is considered the keeper of the flame in terms of Au Sable history and flies...We were standing in a shop in town called the Old Au Sable that was known for years as the Fly Factory and is one of the oldest fly shops up that way...They have a large blown up photo of Rube catching a trout on their wall up there...This guy told me a story about Rube (he was the conservation officer up there back then) where a guy asked him for a special out-of-season permit so he could shoot a deer...He needed some meat for his locker. Rube told the man that this wasn't possible, but then went on to tell the man, just for information purposes, "I will be up in Gaylord for 6 days starting next week"...Hmmm? :)

Spence

So Spence, where's the fishing report???

Jonathon

It's a coming...After being away from the office so long I'm jammed up to my jamables! Haven't had the chance since I've been back to download camera etc...Lawn work, late mother-in-laws' estate, and backed up here at work.

Spence

Spence, haha i don't quite get it?

Ok...There are two men sitting at a bar...No wait that's not it...Rube was the local conservation officer and though he couldn't give the man an illegal permit to shoot a deer out of season, he could tell him when he might be out of town...So, with no conservation officer in town for a few days, the guy knew he could shoot the deer and not get busted...

My father and his brother used to be put on a train in Detroit to Marion MI in the summer (late 30's-early 40's) to work on their uncles farm up there. This great uncle of mine never quite got the idea in his head that there was actually a hunting season. My father would tell a story of wandering around in the woods with his uncle in the summer and his uncle would be looking to take a deer...One day they heard something coming through the woods and the uncle placed the shoot-gun behind a tree and walked away from it...Turns out it was the local conservation officer..."Hey boys! What you doing out here in the woods today?", he asked. My great uncle said something about looking for a mother cow that had gone in to labor and wandered off...The officer said, "Well...You fellas had better just get back up to the house. She'll find her way home in good time."

Many years later when I was a young boy my great uncle had moved to Bear Lake and owned a fruit orchard there that was so big he had a migrant worker camp there...He let me ride his small Honda motor bike where ever I wanted and he had a gas pump on the property where I could re-fuel. He had a beautiful pool table out in the pole building and it had a plastic cover over it...I can't tell you how many deer I watched butchered there in season or not...May be why I became a veg-o in 1970?!

Spence

Hahah got it now and the stories of you and your great uncle are quite entertaining. Ohhh the memories ha!

Beware what you ask for, Jesse - any more encouragment and Spence will be publishing a novel on here...

;oD

Jonathon