Bigfoot Rises from Lake in Oklahoma

In 2021 three boys ages thirteen and fourteen were spending their summer fishing for flatheads in the Arcadia lake in Oklahoma. Their names were Arnold Hastings, Jerry Manning and Hubert Swaney. Hubert had the canoe while Jerry had access to the lake and Arnold lived down the street where there wasn’t access to the lake but he didn’t need it since Jerry had it.


The boys were fishing at night. They would set out their trot lines just before dark and then head back to Jerry’s house where they would either cook some of the fish they had caught the night before or sometimes they would grill hotdogs or burgers. It had become a nightly ritual as the month of August was coming up and the fishing should get nothing but better as the summer came to its end. The catfish seemed to like to bulk up before the winter months and they went on a big eating binge for that month.


Flatheads and Channel Cat both could be counted on to show an increase in their feeding habits that last month of the summer because these fish seem to enjoy swimming right up to the banks to pick their prey. The boys learned just about the best way to catch these cats was to catch some small fish during the daylight hours and then use them for bait at night. They used whatever was available which included game fish which weren’t big enough to keep. This was not exactly legal but they made great bait. The secret was to place the trot line so that it stretched across a section along the bank. Then have the lines which hung down from the horizontal line be strategically placed so the hooks would allow the bait to be half in the water and the other half above the water. The desired effect was for the bait to wiggle which would splash the water and draw the attention of the big fish.

next page