"One nice evening, I went on a boat ride to Willow Slough with Fred Alstrom, Terence Fitka, Gerilyn, and Shannon Fitka.

Fred and I were sitting outside Hunter's Sales one Saturday evening when Gerilyn went rushing by with her rod and tackle box. When asked where she was going and with whom, she replied, Willow with Terence.

After awhile Terence came by and asked us if we would like to come along. We were bored and thought it would be nice to get away from town so we said we would go along. He told us to wait on the beach and he would pick us up there.

So I went up to my house and got a few things, then ran down to the beach to wait. After about 10 to 15 minutes of waiting Terence came by. I hurriedly jumped into the boat and we went to pick up Fred.

After we were all settled, we took off up to Willow. I was sort of excited about going, hoping we would see some sort of animal. Mostly I was hoping to catch enough pike to feed our dogs.

On our way up we didn't see anything, not even birds. Then I thought to myself that we probably wouldn't see anything in Willow because it was too hot for the animals to be out. Maybe we'd see something on our way back down when it cooled off.

After going into Willow for about two or three bends, me and Terence saw a moose. It was on the bank in a little slough off to the left. We told Fred and Gerilyn but they didn't believe us. So we turned around and went into that slough to show them the moose. When they saw the moose they were so amazed and excited. Us boys were pretending to shoot at it, thinking of the kill, the meat and the excitement that follows. When we got to a place where we could all see the moose, Shannon and Gerilyn were both scared and excited at the same time. After it spotted us, it ran along the bank then jumped into the water. It swam across the creek, got out on the other side and ran into the trees. We thought we would see it around the next bend, so we went in a little further, but we didn't see it.

We left the little slough and looked for a good fishing spot. We went into another slough I had never been in and found a lot of fish there. But when the fish would bite and we just about had them in, they would free themselves from the hook and swim speedily away. Gerilyn and Fred were able to pull in one fish each but that's about it.

We left that place in search of another hot spot, but we didn't find one. Then we decided it was time to go home. On the way home, Gerilyn and Shannon were loudly singing, You Are My Sunshine, Twinkle, Twinkle and some other songs.

I had fun that evening, seeing the moose, blasting gnats in the water, catching a few fish (which came off the hook) and running after ducks on land. We all had fun. I guess we were at the right place at the right time."

Told By: David Andrew

Interviewed By: Gerilyn Fitka