One of the stories that I have heard my Dad tell many unsuspecting people, that didn’t know him very well, was about he and Fred Giddings dynamiting fish on Big Cedar Lake. Now remember, this is Dad’s story and not mine.

Dad and Fred were out on the lake, in the middle of the night, in a boat. Come to think of it, if you are going to be out on a lake, whether it is the middle of the night or the middle of the day, a boat is probably one of the best things that you could be in. Anyway, they were on the lake in the middle of the night and they were dynamiting fish. Dad said that the proper way to do that , was to put a fairly long fuse on a small stick of dynamite, light the fuse and throw it overboard. The concussion stuns the fish and they rise to the surface of the water. The fuse should be long enough to allow the charge to sink real deep, then no one will hear the report.

Apparently the word had gotten out that someone was doing some dynamiting on Big Cedar, because on this occasion, the Game Warden was also on the lake, in the middle of the night and in a boat. He rowed his boat up to theirs and asked them what they were doing. Their reply was that they were dynamiting fish.

In order for the Warden to arrest them, he had to catch them in the act, so he asked them to show him how they did it. Fred said “sure”, lit a charge and tossed it over into the Warden’s boat. The Warden quickly grabbed the charge and threw it into the lake. Fred said “there, you are just as good at dynamiting fish as we are”. They gathered up their fish, went home and never heard any more about it.