I remember Jim teaching me to fish streams and actually catch fish.
We usually fished the Monocacy and had some great times catching fighting smallmouth bass and crappie pretty regularly.
But, one time we took Jim's bass boat to another stream, a river I believe and one I had not fished before. I'm not sure he had done it before either. In any case, our journey down the stream where we had left a pickup vehicle took a lot longer than we anticipated. We were on the water well after dark, very dark, in uncharted territory. We came close to falling over a dam, a drop of about 10 feet. Only our panic from the sound of the cascading water, just before we went over, saved us.
But, most remarkable were the amazing jumping (but they seemed like flying!) fish all around us in the dark going down one stretch of otherwise calm water. True story--fish of eating size were jumping all around us, over our heads from one side of the boat to the other, and several actually jumped and landed IN the little bass boat. We caught more fish that way than we did with lines actually in the water.
I don't remember what kind of fish the flying dudes were, but I bet Jim does.

What a tall tale we had to tell our wives when we got back home. We may have had a few beers along the way, and I don't think the women ever believed our story .
But, I sweat it is a true Jim Sheldon story.
Thanks for this adventure and many other times of fine friendship.

John Lovaas
Reston, VA
703-318-9628