The crazy February sunshine had the birds singing and the early spring flowers daring to peek out of the warming soil to see if winter really was gone.

The entire weekend had people out of doors hiking and playing and doing all sort of non-February type of things. My neighbor, Shotgun Mike, was lamenting the lack of ice for ice fishing, my buddy Sim was loading up his boat and heading for the lake, and I was tracking down Beaver boy for a longtime spring ritual.

This ritual has been going on for decades and it was the annual trek for the elusive Moniteau tuna. The Moniteau tuna isn’t any particular fish, but consists of the earliest possible fishing time on the South Branch of the Slippery Rock Creek which flows out of the Glades wildlife area behind Moniteau High School.

I mean, it was going to be great. We were going to be fishing right next to the high school and the kids were all in class going wild with spring fever! I was having a flash back of playing hooky from school to go do something really fun!

I finally tracked down Beaver boy and he picked me up in his truck and off we went! Wait, who brought the bait?

In our haste, we forgot that there was little time to waste in finding some red worms or crawlers and needed to find some. We headed for Logan’s Gun Gallery in North Washington and he did have some bait!

However, Beaver boy almost got off track and started to look over the firearms and such … whoa there … let’s get to the stream!

One of the long-standing traditions is the one dollar bet. We make bets on things such as the first fish, the biggest fish and the most fish. It can get exotic when you pick out a specific species such as a bass, walleye or even a perch.

This was a generic bet though … the first fish for a dollar. This was going to be quite the adventure as we fully came ready for the first trip of the year. I had tried to get my buddy Jimmy to come as well, but he was starting green peppers for his garden!? This spring fever was really in the air and had everyone getting away from the television.

We pulled up to the parking area and saw that the glades waters were flowing over the dam area and the waters looked fishable. The old trail that we used to always use to access our fishing spot was getting pretty overgrown. Nothing that we could do about that, after all, it was the state game lands and it is meant for wildlife, not spring fever crazed fishermen.

We located an alternative deer trail and worked our way to the banks of the creek. I was set up and wasted no time in baiting up my hook and getting ready to win a dollar off Beaver boy.

I noticed a lot of areas to get tangled up in and I carefully selected my casting area. Didn’t know my own strength and I sent my first cast into some overhanging branches.

This wasn’t my first rodeo, though. I slowly reeled in my slack line and the hook and bait plopped right back into the water. I was in and fishing!

Right about the same time, I saw a red pickup truck pull into the parking area. It was my buddy, the pepper planter Jimmy! Now we would have a real tournament with three of us, but he came down the pathway empty-handed. He was going to be a neutral observer, commentator and all around jokester at our expense.

About the time, he started chatting with me, I had a nice hit on my crawler and I promptly missed setting the hook. Dang it, I had that dollar already in my hand and I let the opportunity get away.

In the meantime, Beaver boy came up to my spot and waded into the water with his trapping boots. Of course, this put up a cloud of muddy water and then he walked right up past me and back down stream.

What was that move? Being a man of many talents, his reply was something about trapping the area once in a while. I was back to fishing and then I ended up with a bird nest that caused me a delay as I cleaned up my reel.

Jimmy decided it was time to give me a scientific documentary on reels and fishing line while I was in the middle of a one-dollar tournament.

Then it happened. I heard a chuckle, then a gleeful comment from the Beaver boy.

“Hello Mr. Perch … Jay you better get that dollar out!” Yes, he caught the first fish of the day, a brightly colored yellow perch!

As it turned out, it was also the biggest and the most and on a sunny February day, I paid up, but there really was no loser as we all enjoyed a springlike gift from nature.