The one that got away,,

Back when my oldest son was about ten years old, I let him paddle our old boat across to the mouth of the Bayou.  He wanted to go fishing but not from the piers.  I believe it was more of a need to feel a bit more "grownup" than a desire to fish which was ok, too.  I let him have his way after he promised to stay close to shore and be extremely careful. (Back in the day, we could let our kids do these things.  Now, it is considered "child endangerment" or something.  Then, it was considered letting your boy be a boy.)  Anyway, I could see him from our place and never felt that he would be in danger.  He caught a nice redfish and was trying to catch another when he had the urge to write a poem.  Somehow he happened to have a pencil and on a scrap of paper bag, he scribbled his verse.  The ode was something about his redfish and how it was the largest fish he had ever seen.  He could hardly wait to row back home to show us but as he paddled that boat, an eagle dove from the sky and stole his fish.  The ballad told how he just knew that we would never believe him about the "one that got away".

A redfish that I caught earlier in the year..not the "one that got away"!

Today's fishing story is not too far from the gist of that poem written so many years ago.  I slipped to the pier long before daybreak and caught a nice trout.  Mark headed down about seven in the morning and soon caught a redfish.  Not wanting to put the fish in with the bait, he toted both up the pier a ways and put them in another bucket.  Once that was done, he came back to fish and caught a nice flounder.  By this time, the sun was high in the sky and I knew that I had chores that needed tending.  We headed up the pier only to find that Mark's redfish was missing!  Something had stolen his fish!  The large five gallon bucket was still there and my trout was still inside but his redfish was nowhere in sight!  After many exclamations of disbelief, we decided perhaps a raccoon had climbed up on the pier and swiped that fish.  I had seen one earlier in the morning and thought the poor thing looked a bit hungry but never in my life would I have thought that it would brazenly steal a fish from almost beneath our noses!  Maybe we are pointing the finger at the wrong critter but one fact remains clear..the fish was gone!

Tomorrow morning, we will be back fishing.  We will also be carefully watching our bucket of fish!  If, indeed, a raccoon was the culprit, he will be back for a second helping I am sure.  Still, if nothing else, the stolen fish makes for a good tale!