A Bad Time to Get Baptized

By SGW Ed Rodebush

Its late June about 4 in the afternoon and I was cruising the Deep Fork arm of Lake Eufaula. I could see two boats with several people in the water in the act of noodling. The thing that got my attention was the fact that this was a large mud flat and no rocks were anywhere close to the area. I did know that several noodling structures made from tractor tires were in the area.
I did the old hide the boat and hike to a location to observe with the spotting scope. I counted nine people in the water in the act of noodling. Five adults and 4 juveniles were using two boats to accomplish their task. I am alone and there is no phone service in this area. After watching and planning what to do, the guys load up to move. This is a good time to contact them, but to my disappointment they drove a few hundred yards and stopped. Now about my only option is to pull a Picket's charge and plow right into the middle of them.

The noodlers didn't pay attention to my boat until I turned toward them. By this time they knew what was going on and waited for me. I was within about 20 feet of their boats when my boat quit drifting. I thought my motor skag was stuck in the mud, this would lead me to believe the water in front of my boat was about knee deep. I identified myself to these 9 noodlers and stepped off the front of my boat to approach them.

There was one slight problem I was unaware of. My boat had hung on one of the tractor tires and I wrongly estimated the water depth. What should have been 2 feet of water was actually 5 feet of water. I am six foot tall so doing the math you should realize I was now in water up to my adams apple. Of course I am in full uniform, including gun belt and I had already removed my life vest because you don't need one in 2 feet of water.

You would be surprised how fast you figure out you have screwed up and what is the next course of action. In about 3 hops I was right in the middle of these guys and I didn't even get my hair wet (everything else was soaked). After the situation was in stable condition I informed the guys what was going on.

All of these guys had a good attitude and up to a long time nothing was said about my stepping off in the deep water. As I wrote one guy a ticket, he finally broke the ice and said "Sir we were not going to run from you, you didn't need to jump in that deep water to catch us." I laughed and told them I just messed up on water depth calculations.

After the citations were issued I proceeded to work my way toward home. You Wardens know the feeling after having caught someone red handed and the breeze from the moving boat on my wet body had a very nice cooling effect.

Here is where the Rodebush luck kicks in. The boat motor starts to sound like an airplane engine for about 5 seconds and then decides it's time to go be with the Lord. I'm sitting dead in the water soaking wet, with a blown motor and no cell phone coverage. I paddle the boat to shore, where several bank fishermen snicker at my situation. I hike to the marina and get help.
Monday when I went to file the tickets the last laugh was on me again. I didn't notice at the time but sometime during my boat exit I had banged my knuckle on the boat. At the Court Clerks office as I filed my tickets I noticed some blood was on the tickets. I calmly told the clerk the blood was mine and that I indeed had all my shots and I walked out the door.