"The Greedy Fish"

  "Its mine!  Its mine!  Its mine!  All of them are mine!", thought the catfish that lived in the Bay.  "Its mine!  I want this minnow and this minnow and this minnow.   I can eat them all and grow up to be as big as my daddy.  Its mine!  One more! Oooh!  There is another.  I shall eat it, too."  The greedy fish ate and ate and ate.  Then, the unthinkable happened.  The greedy catfish's gluttony got the best of him.  Two...yes, two of the minnows that he ate contained hooks.  These two minnows were fishing baits and the greedy catfish gulped them down along with the other minnows.  Now, he was in trouble.  The catfish was pulled this way and that.  Two fishermen (or one fisherwoman, in this case!  Me!) thought they had hooked two different fish.  They reeled and reeled almost competing with each other.  At first, the fishermen thought that their lines had become tangled but the realization that they were catching the same fish soon became apparent.

  Yep, we did.  Mark and I set out fishing early this morning.  Before I got to the pier, he had already landed a nice trout and a beautiful redfish. We were excited about perhaps catching enough fish to share with our elderly friends so we kept tossing out the baits.  Then, both lines went out at the same time.  We both fought our fish only to soon realize that we were landing the same fish.  The catfish obviously bit Mark's bait first then went on to pick up mine.  This was a first for us!  Never before have we had this happen!  The fish had been double hooked. 

  Lucky for the fish, after a few photographs, Mark carefully removed the hooks and tossed the fish back into the water.  I can only imagine the stories that fellow is telling to his friends deep down under the water.  Perhaps he learned his lesson and will not be quite so greedy in the future! Strange things happen on the Bayou.