Christmas Memories and Warm Holiday Campfire Moments

Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton & Friends

December 20th, 2025

Segment 1: Opening, Hunting Plans, and a Wild Pork Recipe In this opening segment of the annual Christmas show, Luke Clayton and his regular guest Larry Weishuhn introduce the holiday theme and discuss upcoming hunts and cooking tips.

Sponsors & Support: Larry extends Christmas wishes and thanks sponsors, including DSC (Dallas Safari Club), Trijicon, Stealth Vision, Taurus, and Vineyard Max.

Upcoming Hunts: Larry shares his plans to visit the Choctaw Hunting Lodge to hunt a "broken horn" or non-trophy Oryx for meat, noting that he hopes for a cold day. Luke mentions plans to hunt management bucks and does at the Cotton family ranch with David and Edgar.

Wild Game Cooking: Luke provides a detailed method for preparing wild pork backstrap. His tip involves removing the strap, cutting it across the grain into 5-inch pieces, slicing those lengthwise into thin strips, and pounding them flat. He recommends seasoning the meat, placing it in a Ziploc bag with Louisiana hot sauce and vinegar overnight, and then frying it with a flour, egg, and milk wash.

Segment 2: Christmas Memories and Close Calls Luke and Larry reminisce about their childhood Christmases in the 1950s and 60s, sharing stories about family traditions and rural life.

Early Hunting Memories: Larry recalls hunting squirrels and pecans with his maternal grandfather, AJ Ashenbeck, along Cummins Creek until he was about nine years old.

The Country Store: Luke describes the Dimple community north of Clarksville, remembering the old country store with a rock-base pot-bellied stove where the "old timers" would sit and talk.

The Christmas Tree Incident: Luke shares a story about cutting down a pine tree for Christmas with his father. While sawing the tree, an aggressive sow with her "hackles up" chased them, forcing his father to climb into the very tree they were cutting down.

Segment 3: Guns of Christmas Past This segment focuses on the firearms and ammunition of their youth, alongside a specific hunting story from Luke's childhood.

Vintage Ammo: The hosts discuss the scarcity and variety of .22 ammunition in the past, specifically the differences between .22 Shorts, Longs, and Long Rifles. Luke mentions that the "Long Rifle Hollow Point" was his deer cartridge of choice back in the day.

Larry’s Camp House Memory: Larry recalls his family moving to a "camp house" in the woods for Christmas week, where they cooked stew and BBQ chicken on a wood stove.

Luke’s First Deer Hunt: Luke recounts his first deer hunt around 1959 (age 8 or 9) with his brother-in-law and a friend known as "Mountain Man". "Mountain Man" shot a deer using a Chinese military bolt-action rifle with "steel jacket" bullets. The deer ran off, so the group went home to eat a breakfast of home-cured ham and cathead biscuits prepared by "Ma" before returning with dogs to retrieve the deer.

Segment 4: Explosive Traditions and Holiday Wrap-Up In the final segment, the hosts wrap up the show with stories about unique family traditions and their first guns.

German Christmas Traditions: Larry discusses his German heritage in Southeast Texas and a loud tradition his grandfather, a County Commissioner, practiced on Christmas Eve. The family would pack dynamite under stumps in the bottomland and blow them up to celebrate; Larry recalls one year when the blast broke windows in the house.

Construction Site Cooking: Luke remembers working for a "powder man" on a construction crew in Arkansas and seeing an operator heat cans of "Sweet Sue Chicken and Dumplings" on the manifold of an excavator for lunch.

First Guns: Larry remembers his first gun being a Red Ryder BB gun at age three, followed later by a single-barrel .410. Luke recalls receiving a J.C. Higgins single-shot .22 rifle at age eight.

Closing: The hosts conclude by wishing listeners a Merry Christmas and encouraging them to remember the Reason for the Season!