First post (Cade Patton)

I figured since this is my first post I would give it a little comedy well its hilarious for me and the guys that know the man I am about to tell you the story about. His name is George he is no small critter, he stands at 6'6" tall and weighs over 300 pounds (a lot like me) but the difference is he is almost 60 years old.
Well to get the story started he is the wildest boat driver i have ever ridden with, and if you have visited Reelfoot lake that is about what our bottoms in Arkansas look like. It is strewn with cypress knees and large stumps all over the place. Well needless to say he still runs his 16' boat with a 40h.p. motor on it straight through our bottoms. He flys through the swamp disregarding all of the channel markers my father made a long time ago. Well this day was exceptionally cold and my father, George, another member named Warren and one of George's friends was going to meet them there an hour after shooting light. After hunting for about an hour George said he would run back to the boat ramp and pick up his buddy. So thinking nothing of it my father and Warren stayed in the blind to watch for birds. Well a half an hour went by and my father got worried he kept telling Warren something happened to George he must be hurt it doesn't take but 2 minutes to get from the ramp to the blind. So my father decided he would try and wade out from the blind and get his canoe about 200 yards away. Well about the time he was going to get in the water and start wading they here the dull roar of George's boat coming up the river as Warren said I told you so to my father they waited for them to pull up to the blind. As they grew closer they noticed George had wet hair and lost his hat and his jacket as well. When he climbed into the blind they noticed all of his clothes were different. They began asking him what had happened.
Well George had made one vital mistake. On his way back to the boat ramp he had to go over a beaver dam. Once the boat crossed over the dam (that was flooded enough to drive over) he happened upon a stump hidden under the water. As his boat was blasting over this stump it caught the front of the motor and caused the tiller to rip out of his hands. The boat shot straight forward into a tree. When he hit the tree he was thrown out of the back of the boat. Struggling to get his jacket off of his head he pulled it off and let it float off through the water. The entire time George was in the water his boat was still running in circles around him the boat ran right next to his head after he pulled his jacket off. After this the boat motor shut off and he grabbed onto the side and pulled it to shallower water to get into the boat. Once in the boat his motor would not crank all he could think was dang now my boat is dead in the water. He pulled up the motor and looked at the prop and there was his jacket wrapped around the prop killing the motor. His jacket was the only safety he had from his boat cutting something off. He got it untangled and the boat fired right up. He had gone back to the truck and put on dry clothes so he could keep on hunting. That is exactly what they did but from now on when you see a war eagle boat with a dent in the front that looks like it was run into a brick wall think twice about safety because you never know what will happen.
From that point on his nick name is Mad Dog and he learned nothing from that error almost flipping his boat running up the river again at the end of last season. I stick to my dads canoe with a small mud buddy on it that has a top speed of 3 mph.