I guess the above statement could be taken in several ways. From a medical standpoint, it probably would not be a good thing as it could mean a serious problem with eye health. From a local fisherman's viewpoint, seeing specks would be a good thing since "speck" is the colloquial term for speckled sea trout and any fisherman would be thrilled to find a bunch of specks in the boat! Then, there is Darling Daughter's viewpoint. Seeing specks meant she found another snake in her yard and it was a beauty! Elizabeth came across yet another snake that she dubbed as a friend. A Speckled King Snake had found its way into the yard and made itself right at home. She was delighted to have her new friend visit and told me that it was so docile that she got to "pet" it.
In our discussion about her friendly snake, we came to realize that not everyone loves snakes as much as we do. While my folks were ok with snakes on the farm, others are not so fond of them. I recall one time where Pop was doing some repairs on a pipe that crossed a pond on the old home place. As a youngster, I sat at the water's edge and watched. A large snake swam toward Pop who was waist-deep in the water. I screamed at Pop about the snake. His response? "Oh, let the snake watch out for himself. I am not going to hurt him!" That statement made a huge impact on my thoughts about snakes. From that point on, I was not afraid of snakes. They became a curiosity to me. I tried to pass that curiosity and respect along to my own kids. Elizabeth was a wee tot when I sent her to the garden to pick squash. After she was out in the garden for about ten minutes, she came back with her basket of squash. She then informed me that "There was a moccasin under one of the plants but I got the squash!" Sure enough, she learned to recognize the venomous snake and, sure enough, there was one under the plant! When asked about her calmness in facing the snake, she merely replied "You have always told us not to panic over things." Yep, that love for snakes has been passed down to another generation! Pop would be proud!
It's a speck! Grab the scoop net! Yep, both Mark and I were getting pretty excited this morning when he hooked this fish. By the way it was tugging on his line, we could tell it was a hefty fish. He played the thing out and when it finally was near enough for us to see it, we both thought that he had hooked the first big Speckled Trout of the season. I grabbed the scoop net and fell to my knees on the pier. There was no way that I could reach the fish with the short handled net unless I got closer. The tide was not too high so the water was a far reach from the top of the pier. I did not mind, though, because "It's a speck!" Well, once scooped, we realized that this was no speck....this was a Redfish! Ok, so we would dine upon Redfish and not trout. That was just fine and dandy by me!
What caused the confusion was that this Redfish had multiple spots and in the early morning light (or lack thereof) the water was dark. We saw spots and thought "Speck". Normally, one spot graces the tail of such a fish....sometimes two...maybe three but never as many as what was on this fish! Almost never anyway. The record number of spots ever recorded on a Redfish was 606 on a fish caught back in 2007. Mark's fish had 38 spots on one side and 34 on the other. I guess you could call it a "Speckled Red Drum!
Redfish are actually Red Drums. They also go by the names of Spottail, Red Bass and Channel Bass depending on who is telling a fish tale and the region where the fish is caught. We have always just called them Redfish. The fish is good eating, plentiful and fun to catch so what more can you ask?
