Fish Tales!

Mark teases me a good bit when we are out fishing.  He always says that I catch the weirdest things!  I, like everyone, catch fish but that is not why he teases me..it is for all of the other things that I catch! I must say in all honesty, that I do hook into my share of oddities!  One of the strangest things I have ever caught was a "zombie fish"!  No, that is not a real fish but hey..the day was not ordinary! We were fishing one evening when suddenly my line started tugging!  I had a bite!  I jerked back on the line and had a fight on my hands!  The fish tugged and tugged!  My pole bent this way and that until I finally reeled in..wait for it......a dead fish!  Yep!  I had caught a dead fish! Not just recently dead...dead as in decaying dead!  Parts were sort of sloughing off and it smelled awful!  Now, I ask you..just how in the world does one catch a dead fish???  I did!

Then there was the time just the other day that while fishing with my sister-in-law, Cynthia.  We were fishing and talking..not worried if we caught anything or not.  It was just an outing to "get out of the house"!  I cast my pole far up on the shore hoping to get a flounder or redfish.  As I slowly reeled it back in, I felt a tug.  Here we go again!  No this time it was not a dead fish..I caught a sinker!  I actually hooked into a lead weight that someone had lost while fishing.  The point of my hook had slipped right into the hole of the lead weight.  This might not have been so impressive had it been anywhere else but here..yep, pretty impressive.  You see, here on the Bayou, we have mud.  Ooey Gooey mud.  The sink-up-to-your-neck-if-you-step-in-it type mud.  That sinker should have sunk! (Pun intended!)  Instead, I caught the thing!  Who catches fishing tackle?  I did!

Today, however, was different!  Not really, I caught another weird thing..now Mark can tease me about this.  It had rained almost all afternoon and had cooled tremendously.  I thought this might be the perfect evening to catch a few fish for supper.  Off I went, pole in hand.  The third cast out with my humongous menhaden for bait, I felt the telltale tug!  I had a fish!  This one did not actually pull though..it sort of just laid there.  I eased back on the line..perhaps a flounder?  Mark always tells me that I pull to quickly when flounder fishing so I let it sit for a few minutes.  Nothing.  I eased back on the line again...there was definitely something holding onto the hook.  I slowly and steadily reeled the line.  When I pulled it up on the pier, I had no bait but...I had caught...a BOTTLE!  Woohoo!  Huh?  Yep, I hooked a mud-filled bottle!  That does not look like supper!  Somehow between the time that I had a fish take my bait and the time that I got the line reeled in, my hook had slipped inside the bottle.  The hook had actually turned sideways in the bottle causing it to be quite jammed.  I had hooked a bottle!  Now, all of you anglers out there...let me ask you...just how many bottles have you hooked???  I did!