The Bulldoggers Club boys take their hobbies seriously and plan to enjoy the summer before eighth grade by fishing and rodeoing, until the town bullies force them away from their favorite fishing spot and into a real jam with a notorious neighbor.
In Oklahoma cattle country, kids and adults alike ride and rope, so rodeos are the ideal place to show their skills. Dru's quarter horse is fast and agile, so they're liable to make the finals this year. Scotty, Bo, and Cecil are just as keen on calf-roping as Dru - someday, they'll be old enough to wrestle down steers at the rodeo and their club name reflects that goal.
Fishing is a great way to relax after hard work on the ranch, but the town bullies have staked out the Bulldoggers' favorite fishing hole. Trying to get away from Bart and Jack, the four friends risk trespassing on old Nurse Blanchett's land, despite the cowskulls hung on her barbed wire fence. When they discover that "the witch of Bootleg" is away, they decide to fish in her pond while they can. Nevermind that it earned its name of Quicksand Pond for the true ooze that could trap a full-grown horse, the Bulldoggers have some hard-earned fishing time and are gonna fish.
Wow! Dru lands a whopper, the biggest catfish the boys have ever seen! If they can get it to town to be officially weighed, it could go into the Oklahoma state fishing records book!
All they have to do is lug a slippery, massive fish over the barbed wire fence, avoid the bullies, walk a few miles into Bootleg on this hot summer day...
Will they make it to town with the monstrous fish intact?
Is it a record-breaker?
Where can Dru say he caught it without admitting to trespassing?
Truth, friendship, fish stories, and cutting horses - grab this first adventure in The Bulldoggers Club series to find out what happens next in The Tale of the Ill-Gotten Catfish.
Recommended by: Katy Manck, Librarian-at-Large (retired academic/corporate/school librarian), Gilmer, Texas, USA – blogging young adult books beyond the bestsellers at https://BooksYALove.com
