Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412290060
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-6 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Strange things occur around Christmastime. Maybe, he thought, that his girlfriend, Ann, had slipped the fish out of the freezer and taken it to a taxidermist in order to surprise him with a mounted trophy on Christmas day.
He caught the 27 1/2-inch fish and a couple of other hefty trout on a memorable outing at Cripple Creek in Wythe County.
``It was a wallhanger,'' Hammersley said.
He dressed the two smaller fish and packed them in clear freezer bags so him mother, Jean, and his two aunts, Helen and Marion Shank, could make meals out of them. The three sisters live side-by-side and frequently dine together.
He froze the big trout whole, intestines, head and all, carefully wrapping it in white freezer paper with the idea of taking it to a taxidermist when he had some extra cash.
``I wrapped it up in about three yards of freezer paper and taped it all over, like we used to do an old, worn-out baseball when we were kids. About every other week I go over to my mom's house to do some laundry, and I check that fish out.''
This time, though, it was gone.
``I went upstairs and my mom was sitting on the couch. I asked her, `You don't know what happened to that fish I had in the freezer, do you?'''
``Which one?'' his mom asked.
``The one I had wrapped in white paper, wrapped up really tight.''
``Oh, we ate that.''
``You're kidding!''
``No, and we were mad at you. We couldn't understand why you would leave a fish in the freezer with head, guts and all.''
Hammersley was steamed, but his mother thought the caper was funny.
``When I laughed, it made things worse,'' she said. ``I would start to say something, and he would say, `I don't want to hear it.' He would go out of the room and and come back. I laughed until I cried.''
It didn't help when Hammersley's mom told him it was no big deal, that he could go catch another trout.
``I said, `Mom, I tell you what. It took me 41 years to catch this one. I have been trying all my life to catch a trophy fish, and when I do you eat it.'''
Just how the big fish got away, even after being wrapped like a mummy and placed in a freezer, happened this way:
Jean Hammersley had sent Helen Shank down to the freezer to get a trout for dinner. She picked the big one, wrapped in white paper, rather than one that had been placed in a clear package.
``We put it out to thaw without unwrapping it,'' said Jean Hammersley.
The sisters wondered why the fish was wrapped differently, and they were even more puzzled when they discovered it still had its head, insides and scales. It was so big and tough they had a difficulty cutting off the head.
``We had to take a hammer and pound the knife,'' said Jene Hammersley. ``When we got into the guts, we were sick. To tell you the truth, we didn't enjoy it at all. By the time we got ready to eat it, we were sick of it. We threw most of it away.''
Rick Hammersley is suspicious that much of his trophy trout was fed to his mon and aunt's cat.
``That thing probably is running around with an extra five pounds on it. I might just mount it and have a catfish.''
There is no happy Christmas Day ending to this tale, like Hammersley's mon, aunts and girl friend really were playing a trick on him and there's a neatly tied, nearly 30-inch package under the tree containing his fish all mounted and pretty.
The trout is gone, the cat is fat and the ladies still are laughing, although they aren't eating much trout these days.
And even though his wall will be barren of a trophy trout this Christmas, Hammersley admits he is beginning to see some humori in the tale.
by CNB