CHARLIE KROLL'S BUMBLE BEE


Gather close and you will hear
this fishing story, so strange and queer.
Many men have grinned and jeered
of the fishin' man they've come to fear

and it goes like this — brothers!

Charlie Kroll was always stubborn and free
but he wanted to fish with a Bumble Bee.
You just can't fish with something like that —
not if you don't want the whole town to laugh!
"Damned your hides but you will see
me catch a trout on a Bumble Bee!" (he said)

So . . . in a flash he turns his back,
goes down on home to grab his tack —
But he thinks about his stubborn lot,
"My God man, a bumble bee I have not!"
He grabs a hook and some cloth, and
actually ties a bee right on the spot.

Oh Charlie, Charlie can't you see,
it's impossible to fish with a Bumble Bee?

On the stream, things were dandy,
and better yet with Bols Ginger Brandy.
His line shot forth, the bee intact
A monstrous trout then attacked.
Through froth and foam the fight waged on,
Oh Charlie's Bee was a-comin' home.
"Laugh at me did you say?
A monstrous trout I'll have this day!"

So —

With a jig and a dance,
the sagacious trout did he land,
then onward home ole Charlie drug,
the see-sawing tail of the big old trout.
So listen well, yea who sneered in glee,
Never! Doubt a fishin' man with a bumble bee.

This poem, is a true story by George Gehrke ©1978

George, where he lived on the Snake River, Hell's Canyon
George Eugene Gehrke / American Sportsman
1933-2003