A Day of Fishing that Ended After Dark and Left Us Fearing For Our Lives!

When I was about 7 years old my mom married a rice farmer…

At that time my family had lived in the big city of Houston, TX. most of our lives. There were four of us kids living with our mom. We all knew she struggled with money because she was always working. She worked one to three jobs at a time to support us. So when she told us she was getting married to a rice farmer and would be moving to the country we were all excited! This move to the country gave us hope for a better life in a whole new world. A world filled with farming, fishing and hunting! Along with the benefits of country life, also came the dangers.

I was the youngest of four kids, two sisters and one brother. My brother loved to fish and hunt and I loved tagging along. I remember goose hunting with him, laying in a wet field and being surrounded by Canadian geese! But one of my favorite things to do with my brother was FISHING! I LOVED LOVED LOVED TO FISH!

We had lots of fishing holes to choose from on the 1500 to 2500 acres of farmland all around us. There was the cement bridge, the gar hole, the flunes by the damn (where the bass were huge!), the wooden bridge at the canal.

On this particular day, I was closer to 10 years old now, we decided to fish what my brother called it a spillway with a concrete spillway that had a creek coming off of it. We had traveled a long way down an old field levy beside it to get to this new spot found by my brother when he was farming that day. The water way opened up and got wider in that area and looked like it would be a sweet new fishing hole. Little did we know it would be the one and only time we fished that spot!

We fished long and hard for hours and had not caught anything. It was a hard, long day. We stayed extra late not wanting to give up so it was dark when we finally decided to pack it up and go home. We also both began to feel a little spooked! We didn’t know why. We just knew something didn’t feel right, like we were being watched. It was a creepy, scary feeling. My brother was trying hard to just get everything loaded and act cool about it but I could tell he felt it too.

Finally done loading, both of us jumped in the blazer and started our slow, careful drive back to the main road. Our lights were near useless because the grass was taller than our lights. We only made it a little ways before we heard a toe curling scream that threw us both into a total panic! It was close and it was loud! That scream sounded like a high piercing child’s scream. We didn’t know what it was at the time, all we knew was we needed to get the heck out of there quick!

My brother floored the gas pedal and I hit the floor crying and screaming! (My poor brother, lol). Scared we were about to be attacked by something, we didn’t know what, but we knew enough to know we were in danger! Did I mention there was no back window on the blazer?!? There I sat on the floor staring at that back window, fearful that at any moment something or someone was going to jump through it any second! We were hitting all kinds of bumps in the road, stuff in the blazer was bouncing around, we were bouncing around then finally WE MADE IT TO THE MAIN ROAD! Finally, we were SAFE!

We wondered what it was we had heard. It sounded like we ran over a little girl but we knew there were no other kids out in the middle of this farm area way back in the woods. Was it a woman in the woods getting killed? It sure sounded like it came right out of a scary killer movie! But that was too far fetched to believe too. Was it a black panther, we had heard they passed through our area from time to time. Bobcat? Did we run over a bullfrog? Would a bullfrog scream like that when ran over it? We did not know what to think but we knew whatever it was it was close and it was loud.

Here is a video on youtube if you want to hear their very scary screams:

Mountain Lion Screaming Caught on Camera

I’m 50 years old now and we have the internet and you can find anything on the internet. I searched what animal screams like a girl or woman and what came up? A MOUNTAIN LION!!! If we had known then that the scream we heard was a mountain lion stalking us I don’t know if we would’ve ever felt safe fishing and hunting again! LOL

Thinking back on it now though I realize just how dangerous it was and I am so grateful to my brother for getting us out of there.

My brother was my hero that day and has been my hero many times since!

Yes that’s my Ford Expedition on his truck from a few years back and just recently that was my flat tire at 9:00 at night because my daughter and I craved some Taco Bell! My brother, like many others out there, may think they are forgotten or not appreciated as we get older and more time passes between visits but I wanted him to know I remember every time.

Thank you John!