No waiting ‘til Monday!  How considerate of Mr. Elrod…

You know, without pictures, if one just had the dialogue, this gets even funnier… “Talk, Catfish!”  “Gurgle, glug, glug…” And apparently, the helicopter being employed in the take-down is of the stealth variety…  making only a whisper of  sound over which Mark can be heard to deal the verbal death knell to Ol’ Rod Bassy… “Your fishing days are OVER!”  Ha!  And Rod just stands there like a statue, the errors of his crooked life racing through his mind…

The fact that Rusty has been tied up and kept in the same position for well on 48 hours, the poor lad by now must have lost all feeling in his hands and his back side…  but then one gets the feeling that he likes it that way…  And Mark, oh Mark, thy Trail be done!  With your hair all mussed up , you almost look human.  What’s that again, Rusty? “MMMPHH!” And Really Mark? Does Cherry REALLY need to know what went down when Rusty was in your charge?  Stay tuned everyone!

“Run,  Run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Catfish man!”

Ha!  Catfish is running the 200 meter high hurdles, wearing fins!  Little fins, to be sure, but fins nonetheless…  I really wanted to see an underwater chase and struggle, but alas, it wasn’t to be.  Mark hasn’t made a good open-field tackle in months!  That must feel really good!

And Rod’s posture is great!  You can almost see the look on his face!

And a helicopter?? That wasn’t part of the plan!  Whose side do we think it’s on?  Could be that Rod Bassy is being supported by Big Business, and they certainly won’t cotton to any meddling by a Nature Writer… Maybe this conglomerate is holding Rod Bassy’s family hostage, forcing him to go out and win tournament after tournament through these nefarious means, lest they do certain bodily harm to his precious wife and fair-haired children… Or it could be that Bluegill finally came to his senses and called in the real authorities- the kind that actually care if another human being is abducted and being held against his will…

What would we ever do, if in one of these protracted stories, Mark did not prevail?  What would that say about the order of things, the natural laws that we have come to rely upon? That Ice floats… rocks sink, and Thy Trail be Done!!

I am laughing at Catfish’s reaction- not the usual “What the ___?” but rather “Trail?”  As if he knew in his heart that the gig was up, that Mark was on the trail, and that it was only a matter of time before this whole “Rod Bassy Light up Lure” sham would be brought to an ignominious end!  Good thing Mark ditched his PFD… the kind that inflates upon contact with Water- otherwise he wouldn’t be descending to make sure Catfish meet his fate!

Again, the plausibility of this entire scheme is being called into question…  the logistics alone are daunting- I mean where in the H*ll does Catfish keep these lunker bass?  And when they are hooked onto Rod’s line, do they show any signs of life?  We see only one bass in the second panel- does Catfish have a holding pen off camera?  At least we are seeing some bubbles coming off the respirator…  Clearly I am over-thinking this…

Don’t you love Mark’s expression in the first panel?  “Uh, OK, if you say so, Rod… but really, I am on to you.”  Does Mark dive in and tackle Catfish, tearing off his mask and breather?  Is it to be fisticuffs in the water? Sort of like when my mother tried to spank me in the tub? OOPS, TMI…  Wait and see!!

Sort of like watching the movie Argo or the Spirit of St Louis…  You KNOW how this is going to end, but the tension still mounts!!  And the thought balloons!  Amazing!  Mark is managing to hold dear his thoughts… his plan of attack!  “Heh, heh… this is a deep spot… better use my LIGHT UP LURE®…” Ol’ Rod thinks he’s so smart.  Little does he know that Mark is on the <ahem> Trail…

Still I ask, though, whither the bubbles?  A Scuba rig lets off scads of ‘em, and there’s nary a blip… I am picturing Catfish underwater, though, with a net-bag full of bass waiting to find the LIGHT UP LURE®…” This is so preposterous as to be amusing…  Let’s see, it’s only Tuesday.  We should have this wrapped up by Saturday, don’t you think?

Like he was “Tracking” him in the first place!  Ha!

Passive Aggressive Mark Trail is really going for the throat with was passes for an accusation of Rod’s involvement in the “Rusty Kidnapping Caper, Bass Tournament” story.  Does Rusty have a last name? As an adoptee, is his full name now Rusty Trail?  If so that’s pretty funny.  They need to find a girl, “Sandy” or perhaps “Mossy.”

“Why you asking me trail?  You know how kids are…”  Well, actually he doesn’t have the slightest notion of “how kids are…”  Pronghorn sheep, the common salamander perhaps, but kids, no.  Mark is as baffled by Rusty as he is by Cherry’s advances…  He can only see Rusty in terms of a smaller version of himself- camera slung around his neck, getting “the story…”

Oh he’ll turn up all right… the question now is in what shape?  Am I really fearing for Rusty’s well-being?  Apparently I spend too much time on this…

Not to mention the “Bluegill,” turned a shade of steely gray by man’s assault on the environment, is joining the rainbow trout in a fly feasting frenzy, never mind that never in the history of that particular fish has one broken the water’s surface to get a meal…

“Meanwhile, back at the Bass Tourney… C’mon, let’s go, Trail, we’re burning daylight here!”  Oh, Mark how clever of you- “Didn’t think you would show since I didn’t see your van or your henchman here…” just the kind of obtuse, left-field comment that an experienced Nature Reporter would make when trying to uncover fraud and abuse in the watery realm…

And who are these nameless, faceless “Tournament Officials?”  I have a visual on them, sitting under a pop-up shelter, finishing off their first case of the day, breaking into their second…  All wearing bright colored arm bands just to make them look official…  You know the phrase- those who can’t do, officiate…

“I sent catfish to run a few errands for me- you know, laundry, dry cleaning, get the oil changed, snuff and chop up Rusty into little pieces… oops, did I just say that??”

Now there’s a plan…  Mark is going to dive off the boat and catch the mouth breather red-handed, or slimy finned, or something like that…  I am so glad they let us in on their scheme, I would hate to have been caught off guard as the Saturday strip ends with Mark going over-board (literally and figuratively…)  But if the concern is truly about Rusty (which it’s not) They could just wait for Bassy and catfish to abandon their van (which apparently has stealth/ cloaking capabilities) and knock on the window- “Rusty, lad, you in there?”  “Muff, muff,  mufff,” the bound boy would reply… The priority here is to catch Bassy doing something wrong (can we even say illegal?  Since I doubt that there are any actual laws being broken here… what, transporting large bass across state lines with the intent to marry them to illegal light up lures?)

But what hash has Bluegill pulled from the cook-top?  A steaming bowl of orange, nondescript something… mashed sweet potatoes?  Ground catfish?  The mind races!  And have we ever seen Mark cook, other than over an open fire whilst camping?  I suppose that fits with the Tralian Milieu…

Again, tortured logic in play!  Why in the world does the execution of Rod and Catfish’s evil plan hinge on their maintaining custody of Rusty, tied up, in the “Rod Bassy Stealth Van?”  Wouldn’t it be easier to just (perish the thought) snuff the life out of the little hell-boy and dump his body in a culvert?  And for use later if questioned, manufacture a plausible alibi (“I was with him- and oh yea, I was with him… we were polishing lures and sharpening hooks”)

The look on Trail’s face in the second panel is priceless.  Mark is so sure of himself, even though, again, his reasoning is without foundation.  Committing the classic “post-hoc, ergo propter hoc,” fallacy, mark is trying his best to put his powers of prefrontal cortex reasoning into play, only to embarrass himself…  The woodland creatures, in quiet rumination, mock his supposed mental acuity…

“…tough to find a van with “Rod Bassy” emblazoned on the side?  Really?  Well, Mark agrees, so it must be so!  With all the fishermen in town? What, no women?  And the van was so difficult to find all the other days- “Oh, look, there’s Rod Bassy’s van…”  

But let us take stock of the situation…  a suspected kidnapping and never a mention of getting the local constable involved.  It’s like the only law enforcement that exists in the Trailian Universe are Park Rangers and Game Wardens, both of which care little about the welfare of humans or enforcing the laws designed to protect them…  “…fewer people the better,” they’d say…

See Mark gritting his teeth?  If the camera were allowed to pan down, we would see his fists-o-justice clenched for sure!  I trust that I am not just getting my hopes up only to have them dashed…

Too bad they aren’t fly fishing- looks like the hatch is on!

I bet by now he really has to go to the bathroom!!

“Act like I don’t know anything” will be an act all right… “Rusty? Rusty who? Don’t know who you are talking about Trail…  If it doesn’t have gills and I can’t put it in my gunny sack, I don’t much know or care about it.  I am all about the BASS, you know?  That’s why they call me ‘Bassy.’  If I cared about kids they’d call me ‘Kiddy’ and I’d paint THAT on the side of my van.”

That has to be the saddest Rusty face I have ever seen!  Do you think he has now seen the error of his ways, how his intrepid, get the shot at any cost style, might finally be his undoing??  And the bullfrogs are weighing in on Rod’s plan…  can you hear them?  “Bullshit…. Bullshit…”

…NO REASON anyone will SUSPECT US!  I guess you’d be wrong. Mr. Bassy… Not long from now you will be getting your come-uppance…

Poor Rusty!  He can hear everything that these evil men are saying…

I love the manufactured urgency from Mark… “We’ve got to find that van SOON…”  And the dramatic use of light and shadow in frame one… they must have learned that from the “Draw Tippy the Turtle, and you could qualify for a scholarship” School of Art found on old matchbook covers…

Lying in the murky depths, looking for the light-up lure…  I am really having trouble buying this whole thing though, I mean it’s just not plausible…  lots of trouble to go to in order to make sure that you are bringing in the biggest catch of the day.  And where do they get their fish? Keep them alive.  I am growing bored with this.  Mark better be sharpening his fists and wrap this up in the coming week, or…

But note Mark’s priorities- (1) Catch them cheating and (2) recover Rusty.  These are two mutually exclusive objectives…  hmmm.  Very telling.

OK, I am sorry, but what about all those bubbles rising to the surface?  What do you suppose those are?  Fish Farts??

Again with Rod’s EQUIPMENT… And worrying about EXPOSURE…  I would be worrying about too many double entendres…

I suppose this is what happens when the audience gets so far ahead of the storyteller…  that when the plot turns or truths become known, it’s kind of ho-hum… But let’s think for a moment about the creative process that brought us to this point.  I mean, at some point, Elrod and Co. had to conceive of a plot line that would get us to this juncture- where a cocky bass fisherman has built an entire empire upon a lie.  It’s not the Lures, people, it’s the fact that he has a bald accomplice with gills that plants large fish onto his “light-up” lure… Do you suppose that there is drinking involved?  or is this a process where they pull slips of paper of of different hats, one labeled “characters'” another labeled “plot dirvers” (like ‘rusty being kidnapped…’) and away they go?

Not to mention they probably have a library of clip art including ‘Mark looks concerned’ as in panel 3…  What do you suppose he uses on his hair? the way the light dances off’n it…

Ha! Told you!! I am so smug and proud, my head isn’t going to fit through the doorway now!!  Again, though, the thought balloon is absent and Mark must verbalize his every thought…  How funny… “Just. Have. To. Zoom. In. A. Little. Bit… There! SCUBA GEAR!!”

Catfish was right though, the van is a total MESS.  Water dripping everywhere!   But clearly Rusty has cracked the case and now he is in mortal danger…  How will they ever find him now that he is being transported in that cleverly camouflaged van??? Where’s Andy??  Why did he get the “story off?” We could sure use his nose right now…

Out of nowhere comes a device that would suggest that we are actually operating in the current year, or at least the recent past!  A laptop!!  A memory card from a Camera!  I guess the camera doesn’t have one of those fancy “view-screens…”  But no matter.

I think that’s hilarious… the ennui exhibited-** ho-hum** “Bass Boats, fisherman, the usual stuff”  **yawn**  But Wait!  There’s more!  Oh the heart races.  Do you suppose we will get to the punch line by Saturday?

Elrod HAS to be writing this with people like me in mind… “Let’s see, how moronic can I make Trail look?”  “Camera… Camera… CAMERA! WAIT! It holds PICTURES, maybe even CLUES!”  And to suggest that “Rusty being taken by force” is some new, novel plot twist is quite a stretch even in itself.  As previously discussed, Rusty is a consummate kidnapping victim.  Almost like he enjoys being bound, gagged and taken away “by force.”

But is there now a chance that Mark might be able to unleash his Fists of Justice?  His Roundhouse of Rightousness? His Right-hook of Retribution?  We can only wait and see!

Sadly, Rod is probably spot-on… The specific gravity and density of Mark’s Pre-frontal cortex* suggests that it will be at least a week’s worth of strips before he might link Rusty’s disappearance to Messrs. Bassy and Catfish…  But with the spotted salamanders on high alert, someone (maybe even Trail) will link the restlessness of this bellwether species to a great unhinging of the natural order of things… and suggest to him that his young charge is being taken against his will…

* This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making and moderating social behavior. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex

Here it is in color!!  “That’s PINK Spotted Salamander to you, Fella!”

The kid saw everything…  but does he have the mental acuity to connect all the dots?  That’s the question… but oh, what to do?  I don’t think there’s felony charge for “cheating at a bass fishing tournament,” but I am pretty sure that Bassy and Catfish just punched their ticket to the land of big time hood-dom, adding kidnapping to their repertoire… Nice going, Catfish… we could have headed south and lived out our days in mexico, in shame, but now we are wanted felons…

But come to think of it, I don’t think I have ever recalled any baddie getting the kidnapping rap…

What will possibly next?  And you only THINK Rusty would never “go running off without telling me…” I mean really, Mark?  he does it all the time!  And where are you and are you paying attention to his needs?  I think not…

It’s a damn good thing that Mr Catfish, along with doing a piss-poor job of securing the details of his illegal fish tournament caper, seems to have been to too great a hurry to notice that A CAMERA went THUD! on the ground… Now all mark has to do is go through the pictures on the memory card…  Mark, you DO know how to do that, don’t you?