The Unmaking of an Ozark Stream, and One Last, Giant Bass with My Grandpa

The Unmaking of an Ozark Stream, and One Last, Giant Bass with My Grandpa

This story, “The Last Big Bass: Old Fighter,” appeared in the October 1973 issue of Outdoor Life. The river was quiet. An owl had been calling earlier in the evening, but now it was close to midnight, and he had stopped. Occasionally a big bullfrog downstream broke the stillness with a series of bellows, then again there was only the constant rushing of water over a nearby shoal. Wrapped in quilts, I lay beneath a makeshift lean-to made of a big…