What a day fishing..

This has got to be the biggest 'fish tale' ever! I got a call today from a good friend, Jeff. He is an old hunting buddy and he also happens to enjoy fly fishing with his wife Mimi. This weekend he and his wife decided to head up to the White Mountains for a little trout fishing. As the day wore on, Mimi got cold in her fishing tube and decided to head out to the truck to warm up a bit. When she was leaving the lake the brush behind Jeff started crashing and creaking with the sounds of an animal coming to water in the afternoon. To Jeff's surprise less than a hundred yards away a bull elk appeared and walked out into the water to cool off and drink. The bull had a nice rack but appeared emaciated. The farther the bull went in to the water the closer he got to Jeff in his tube. The bull would stick his head under water and surface again and didn't seem to mind Jeff's presence. Odd behavior for this time of year for sure! Jeff was enjoying this site and relishing the moment, until one of the bull's dunks seemed to take too long. Curious, Jeff paddled over to the bull which had now been submerged for a very long time. He could see the bulls head and his eyes were open, but he was not moving. Jeff got close enough to hit it on the back several times with his fly rod Convinced that something had gone wrong Jeff grabbed the bull by the horns (no pun intended) and sure enough, the bull had drowned! Amazed at the whole ordeal Jeff grabbed an antler and paddled for the shore. After pulling the bull on to the shore, Jeff called the Game and Fish Dept. and waited for an officer to arrive. It turns out the bull had an old compound fracture between the right hock and knee. Infection had set in and was rampant throughout the bull's body. The game officer said that under these conditions the animal runs a high fever and stays close to water all day to go in and cool off. Unfortunately during this last 'cooling session' he had finally run out of energy to swim, and drowned. Jeff was allowed to keep the rack and was issued a tag for it. The meat however was full of bacteria and was a loss. Although the bull has yet to be measured, I estimate it will be in the 320 - 330 range... just goes to show those big magnums are not always necessary! Rocky