Outdoor Underground Presents...

Galesburg, IL-Last week, authorities questioned a Galesburg youth after he reportedly used his fly rod like a bullwhip in a supposedly unprovoked attack.  Now, one witness has come forward to say that the alleged victim deserved it.

Since this bizarre case involves an altercation between two minors, the names of the boys could not be released to the press.  But one eyewitness gives the following account of what happened:

“The first boy was just practicing his fly casting in the parking lot when the second one came up on his bike and started heckling him,” says the witness to the Galesburg apartment complex incident who declined to be named because he is a neighbor of the boys and their families.

“He was riding circles around him and laughing-saying stuff like, ‘What do you think you’re doing?  You can’t catch fish on dry land.’”  

But, according to the source, when he looked out his apartment window again the boys appeared to be engaged “in what looked like an innocent lesson on fly casting.”

“They were just throwing the line with no hook on the end or anything.  It looked like the fishing kid was letting bike boy try out the rod.”

Things turned violent moments later when “the fishing kid” asked for a turn on the other boy’s bike.

“He yelled, ‘No way, freak.  Maybe you should have asked for a bike for Christmas instead of some stupid old fishing rod,” continues the source.  “Then he rode away fast.”

That’s when the first boy turned and began casting the rod furiously overhead. 

“I’ve dabbled in fly fishing in the past and clearly what the kid was doing in fly fishing parlance is called ‘a double-haul’,” says the witness, adding that the technique is a semi-advanced method of big-water casting typically used by master anglers when throwing big flies long distances and in high wind.

With a flick of the wrist, the boy shot the line forward ‘like a laser beam.” 

“He gauged the distance perfectly-I’d guess around 40 feet-snapping his wrist at the last second to bring the line over and down across the bike boy’s face.  I heard a-Crack!-like a bullwhip and the kid on the bike cried ‘Oooooo’, the bike wobbled, and he was down.”

The result of the fly rod altercation was a nasty, red welt across the victim’s face and visit from police for the perpetrator.        

“But I’ll tell you-I live here,” says the witness.  “That kid on the bike is an annoying little piece of suburban shit.  The only way it could have been better in my opinion is if he’d gotten hit with one of those barrel-eyed Clouser minnows…without the hook, of course.”