Goodbye old friend

Dear Editor:

A good friend, Danny Sewell, passed away Saturday, April 15.

To say he will be missed is an understatement! I have only met a couple of guys that loved to hunt and fish as much as Danny did and he was one of them.

For 10 days every November, the “Rusty Zipper Club,” consisting of myself, Jack Wolf, Steve Bryant and Danny Sewell, would convene early each morning for coffee before hunting, to tell where we were hunting that day and hunting, fishing and other “stories.”

My favorite Danny Sewell hunting memory occurred a couple of years back when Danny shot an eight-point buck. After hearing Danny shoot, via walkie-talkie we asked him what he got. He replied — well, when I shot it was an eight-point buck — but when I found it, it was only a four-point. The dying deer ran down hill into an oak tree and broke half its’ rack off — which Danny found later still stuck into the oak tree.

When it came to fishing, whether they were biting or not, Danny never wanted to quit, unless he ran out of bait and Danny bought worms by the case of a thousand or more — He never ran out of bait.

The day Danny died, I was fishing in a catfish tournament and about 2 in the afternoon I hooked a big cat of at least 20 pounds that took m y line into a snag under water. With the fish still on the hook, I tried for quite a while to get my line free and finally while right over the snag, the current and the weight of the boat snapped my 50-pound line. I looked at the time to see how much longer I had to fish. It was 2:25. Danny’s daughter, Traci, called later to tell me of Danny’s passing at 3:25 that afternoon.

When I think of Danny’s passing I’ll always remember the big one that got away. The Rusty Zipper Club will never be the same.

Dan Righter