With Deep Spray-On Tans And Creamy Lotiony Hands, You Can't Grip A Tacklebox

Thinking about Spring approaching and fishing, I was reminded of the TV shows I watched on Saturday and Sunday this time of the year that would get me excited to clean my tackle box and get ready to go fishing. I liked several shows, that were kind of like a safer more local version of Marlin Perkin's Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, which I also liked very much.

I liked Jimmy Houston Outdoors. He was a very tanned blond headed guy from Oklahoma, with a funny yuk yuk laugh.

I also liked the World of Virgil Ward. He was some kind of yankee that fished sometimes for fish I had never seen nor heard tale of. He was a big fan of the Beetle-spin that is also a good bait like a Roadrunner.

Then there was Don Wallace of Wallace Wildlife. I think he was also from Oklahoma, but the show came from a station out of Dallas.

Then later I liked watching Bill Dance. He was a southerner who always wore a Tennessee ball cap. He was much more of a teacher than any of the rest.

I never had my own TV show, but I have lots of pictures like this one. I think this is one I caught at Johnny Bob's farm east of town. Several of my largest fish were caught out there when I was in high school and college with Johnny Bob and Hank. People always asked my how Hank got his name. Well it comes from fishing. When we were in high school he first got his Shimano rig, like Johnny Bob and I had, but he could not get used to casting it. When he would cast a lure, he would let it go too soon at too high of an angle and it would almost go straight up. Johnny Bob and I would tease him (as boys do to their closest friends) that we thought he was going for "hang time."

In American Football, one measure they use to grade punters is how long the ball stays in the air so the punting team can get down field and cover the ball, thus reducing the likelihood of a good punt return. They call this hang time. We started calling him Hang Time. Over time, that got shortened to Hang. I think after more time and given the fact his last name is Williams, people thought we were calling him Hank as in Williams. We got tired of correcting them and telling the story so we finally let it go and started calling him Hank. But that is the origin of the nickname. In elementary school we called him Pete. He was a good third baseman and a real "Charlie Hustle" so we called him that as short for Pete Rose. He would also occasionally do a headfirst slide to impress the ladies.