My friend, Darlene, returned to the Bayou for yet another day of fishing. Being a teacher, she was on Spring Break this past week and wanted as much "Fishing Therapy" as she could get. We have been doing relatively well and have caught a good many red drums, trout and croakers. Of course, we caught our fair share of gafftopsails, catfish and other "trash" fish. We never complain, though, since we both love to fish and it sure beats staining flooring boards. She and I can sit for hours with a rod and reel in hand.
Today, our fishing experience was just that...an experience. First, the weather did not cooperate. It was heavily overcast and COLD!! The north wind proved to be quite icy over the water. Then, we had a bird steal our bait. The juvenile Great Blue Heron that has been begging handouts has taken to stealing as of late. While we were not watching, that rascal emptied our bait bucket of all the little, live mullet except for one tiny one. There is not much fishing going to happen without bait! I had to throw the net to catch more bait which was quite scarce due to the inclement weather. I did, however, replenish our stash but nary a fish bit. We did, however, make a couple of catches.
About mid afternoon, Darlene said she had a "bite". Sure enough, her line was being pulled out from the reel. She jerked back only to say that it was weird. Yep, a great description. Instead of a bite, she had something rather different. A snapping turtle had become tangled in her line. It took a bit of doing but we finally got the critter untangled without losing a finger in the process. My catch was just as bad, if not worse. I really did catch a snapping turtle. That goofy critter ate my mullet...hook and all! Reeling in a huge snapping turtle is not the easiest thing to do. Those things weigh a ton! It felt like I was hauling in a log.
The hook was actually embedded in the turtle's tongue but there was no way that I was going to stick my hands in that mouth to unhook it. Knowing that we use a style of hook that is fast-rusting, I cut the line. The large turtle slid back into the water. I am sure that he will have a sore mouth for a few days but, after that, he should be fine. He just needs to learn to stay away from my fishing line! Oh, the things that we catch here on the Bayou!
Back in the day, Pop would use some rather comical phrases when explaining something. One that sticks out as quite odd is "There is more than one way to skin a cat." I could never figure this one as Pop never skinned a cat in the first place so how in the world would he know more than one way. Why not "More than one way to skin a hog....or deer....or steer....or rabbit...or squirrel...or even a frog"? Those he skinned...we all did as part of work on the farm but skinning a cat...nope. Never wanted to do that. Cats were valuable workers on the farm and we could not afford to lose one. So, I figure Pop must have heard this phrase as a kid and it stuck....just like me as the phrase pops out of my mouth as often as not.
This afternoon, my friend came to the Bayou for a bit of "fishing therapy". That is something that is good for what ails you. (Another of Pop's favorite idioms. He was good at throwing them out there when needed.) My friend and I headed to the pier after doing some baking. After tossing out several lines, we sat back to have a bit of conversation. It was not long before she got a nibble or what she refers to as a "tink". "A tink", she explained to me, "is not a full bite but just an aggravating nibble." She and the tinker played a game of cat and mouse for a while before she reared back and got the fellow. "Aha! I got you now, you little tinker mug!" (So, now the fish graduated from being a tinker to being a tinker mug!) Darlene played her fish well and brought up a stingray. This is where that "more than one way" came into play. She had not hooked her fish in the normal way via the mouth. Somehow, she had snagged the fish in the pectoral fin that runs down along the edge of the fish. The hook was nowhere near the mouth! I guess there really is more than one way to skin a cat...catch a stingray!
Once we unhooked the stingray, I noticed something poking out of its mouth. Aww, poor thing! That stingray had already been hooked before Darlene snagged it. The fish had a hook embedded deep down in its gut from some previous fisherman. There was no way that I could retrieve the hook without doing major damage to the fish so I just scooted him back into the water. I sure hope the other fisherman had used the same kind of hooks that we use. We use hooks that rust to pieces in a matter of days so that if something like this happens, the fish does not suffer long. Poor stingray!
