Kickass and Cheating Fishermen

Bunrunner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper that by now everyone, at least every fisherman, has heard about the two Ohio competitive fishing “champs” who were caught putting weights and other material inside their catches as they maintained their lead in the “Fisherman of the …
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Kickass and Lost Prop

Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper cheers the recent finding of the 3,000-year-old canoe at the bottom of Lake Mendota; and is reminded once again of the time that the propeller fell off his outboard as he and several highly questionable fishing companions …
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Kickass and Dan Wisniewski

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper was among the hundreds of friends who gathered Thursday at Holy Wisdom to honor the life of Dan Wisniewski, who died last year.  Dan was an exceptional man of limitless accomplishments, and a trout fishing companion to many, including the keeper …
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Kickass and Screaming Trout

Pacific Southwest Region USFWS from Sacramento, US, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper sometimes gets behind in adjusting to the flow of information; and is currently struggling with the speculation that humans do not have a monopoly on consciousness, meaning that other species—fish, for example, …
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Kickass and Gators

Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, indulges the keeper as he—the keeper remembers a February when he was waist-deep in a Florida river in the middle of the night to exercise his perverse passion of night-time fly fishing; and a woman’s voice shouted from the darkened riverbank, “There’s gators out …
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Kickass Talks to Horses

Photo by Harry Peterson By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s report of a last-day trout fishing excursion with Harry Peterson that included such extensive immersion in the rural Driftless landscape that communicating with the animals, both wild and domestic, came as naturally as it ever can for a species that …
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Kickass Gone Fishing

Photo by Greysen Johnson on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that keeper has gone through most of his long life using the “Gone Fishing” philosophy to deal with all manner of issues, everything from birth to death; and so, instead of packing for an upcoming move, he—the keeper looks forward to an overnight outing …
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Kickass Resigns as Predator

WayneRay, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, does the keeper a favor by passing along the following proclamation which addresses the keeper’s desire to revise his predator status:             “I, being of suspect mind and dilapidated body,             “And having passed on predatory killing tools to younger clan members,             “And marveling …
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