Two Fisherman Swapping Stories

Two ardent fishermen met on their vacation and began swapping stories about the different places they had fished, the kind of tackle used, the best bait, and finally about some of the fish they had caught. One of them told of a vicious battle he once had with a 300-pound salmon. The other man listened attentively. He frankly admitted he had never caught anything quite that big. However, he told about the time his hook snagged a lantern from the depths of a lake. The lantern carried a tag proving it was lost back in 1912. But the strangest thing of all was the fact that it was a waterproof lantern and the light was still lit. For a long time the first man said nothing. Then he took one long deep breath. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ll take 200 pounds off my fish, if you’ll put out the light in your lantern.” (Jacob M. Braude, Braude’s Treasury of Humor,  Prentice-Hall, 1964)