Greed Gets You Every Time!

  Greed is not a pretty thing.  It causes a lot of pain in more ways than one and, in the end, will come back to bite us in the butt.  This is not only true from the human aspect but also with the critters of the world.  Let a predator attack something a little too large and old karma is just liable to strike back.  The primal urge of greed becomes the ultimate downfall.  

  This morning, that primal urge was working at its best.  Mark and I had settled into fishing from the pier this morning.  A few mornings ago, I had caught four red drums and we were in hopes of a few more.  The ones this morning were to be cleaned and shared with our sweet elderly friends.  We were using little mullet for bait.  These were between three and four inches in length and would offer any red fish a delightful mouthful.  It was not long before I saw my line lift. Ok!  I had a bite.  I waited then set the hook.  Well, where was my fish?  Nothing was pulling back on the line.  Something was sorely amiss.  I wound in the line to check my bait when I realized that I did, indeed, have a fish on that hook but what a mess!

  A small croaker, not much larger than my bait, had decided to take a nibble and wound up getting hooked....and tangled!  Once the hook was embedded in the fish, the live mullet literally hog-tied the croaker!  Now. both dangled from the line!  The croaker was both hooked and ensnared.  That fish should have kept to smaller morsels for his breakfast.  Attacking a mullet of this size was too much for the small croaker and it became his downfall.  Greed has a way of coming back to bite those who practice it.  Best keep your mouth shut, Mr. Croaker!  You are in a fine fix now!

Nature mimicking people? Not a good thing.

  One has to ponder how things are in the world today.  With all of the stupidity ruling, where has commonsense gone?  There is nothing but a bunch of whiny folks complaining about anything and everything.  People think they deserve more than they have, find fault with everyone else and are so easily offended by the most unoffensive things has created a pitiful state of being.  Basically, in my humble opinion it all boils down to one thing....greed.  Just about 90% of the people nowadays think they should be handed everything on a gold platter.  (Yeah, I know that the saying is a silver platter but, here lately, if you stuck a million bucks on a silver platter and handed it to someone, they would be offended that the million dollars was not on a gold platter.  Sad state of affairs this mess is.)  

  I was thinking about all the greed that seems to have taken hold of the greater part of the population nowadays as I sat on the pier this morning.  The pier is where I do my greatest thinking.  I ponder things and, then as my Uncle Alfred used to say, put things back to suit myself.  Yep...I wish I could.  A lot of folks would receive a good whupping and then be sent back home.  Just as I was about to head back to the sanity of the Little Bayou House, I heard a lot of racket out over the Bay.  The cormorants had flown back into the area by the hundreds but, while they were peacefully diving for minnows, they were being attacked by seagulls.  Yep, about thirty seagulls were literally dive bombing the cormorants.  Greed had taken over the gulls.  In their eyes, the cormorants had no business being in the Bay eating "their" minnows.  Even though there was more than enough for every bird in the county to get breakfast, the gulls wanted everything for themselves.  There was no "share and share alike" with the greedy gulls.  I watched as the gulls would actually steal fish from the cormorants and other birds after it was caught.  The pelicans, ducks, mergansers and grebes were happily swimming right along with the cormorants but not the seagulls.  They squawked and attacked like a bunch of rioters who did not get their way on something.  Whiny, raucous, hateful and lazy...all over a tiny minnow that could have easily been earned the good old fashioned way.

  I stayed to see the outcome of the ruckus.  Would the greedy gulls win? Would the cormorants cede to the wishes of the rioters?  Would evil top peaceful?  Not in this case.  The cormorants, ducks, pelicans, mergansers and grebes kept feeding regardless of the ugliness of the gulls.  Yes, the cormorants did eventually leave the area but only after they finished feeding.  This was not by the intimidation of the gulls, however, as it is a daily thing.  By evening, the cormorants would fly back in to get supper. The riotous gulls would start their stupidity, once again, thinking they had succeeded in doing great things.  Delusional little rascals, aren't they?  The other birds were happy campers with full bellies while the gulls did nothing more than cause themselves a bit of grief.  Sounds familiar doesn't it?

"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.