I have always been fascinated by spiders and spider webs. Not that I particularly wish to find them in the Little Bayou House but I have been known to not kill them. It is a fact that I will gently catch and move a spider if it is deemed bothersome. Spiders are good. They eat other critters that infest homes. To my way of thinking, it is far better to have a couple of spiders than a house full of roaches, fleas or other creep-crawly critters. Don't get me wrong here! I will occasionally kill a spider. Brown recluses or any of the widows are on the "evil" list. I was bitten years ago by a black widow and do not wish to repeat that! To be honest, I get bit by some sort of spider almost weekly but the widow did the most harm.
Another facet of the world of spiders that I adore is their webs. While I admit that (again) I am not fond of them in the house, outside is a different story. The webs are interesting. Let a light fog or misty rain fall upon the Bayou and every web is a jewel-encrusted decoration! The sheer strength of the webs to hold so much water is impressive. Most of the spider webs are of the orb type. The spiders will string webs between two trees, in the marsh or even on the side of the house, itself. Once the fog rolls in, the webs catch the drips and hold them tight. Occasionally, I will come across a web of one of the "tangle-web" spiders. These are the ones that build webs with no particular design other than a mass of sticky silks. Think cobwebs here. The tangle-web spider family includes the pretty docile house spiders, several species of the yard spiders AND the widows.
Walking after the rain the other night, I came across a tangle-web. One of the common yard spiders that created its web between some twigs and grasses. The spider was not to be found. The web had been abandoned during the torrential downpour. With the spider gone, I was able to confidently examine the web without fear of disturbing my little friend. Yep, it was definitely a tangled mess! It was easy to see how a hapless bug could become ensnared in this mess!
The web was left intact just on the outside chance that Friend Spider was going to return. Perhaps with the next hike the spider can be identified and photographed but, for now, the web was my interesting find of the day.
For a few years now, there has been a huge upswing in "do it yourself" project books on the market. It seems that folks cannot figure out the simplest of things these days without some step by step instructions. Back in the day, folks used their brains or as Pop used to say "used the head for something besides a hat rack." There was no "I do not know how to do it. Let me get a book." If something needed doing, you just did it. Useful knowledge was passed down from generation to generation like it was a priceless heirloom. (And it was.) All of that has seemed to go the wayside, though, nowadays. Still, the folks who write all of the "How To" books are pretty smart as they are making a killing by selling what once was commonsense. (That...commonsense...is a rare commodity these days.)
I am not here to share a "How To" but rather a "How NOT To". A friend came back to the Bayou today for a bit of fishing. She and I seem to head to the pier no matter what the weather which was definitely proven today. The north wind was icy and it had blown the tide far out from the shore. That was not going to stop us from fishing just like the lack of bait was not going to deter us. We were determined to fish regardless of the obstacles that kept bouncing in our way. I showed her how to use the trap to catch bull minnows and I caught a few mullet. We were good to go...except for the lack of water. No problem! We would just toss all the lines out as far as we could. Once the lines were out, I tried to catch a bit more bait only to come back and find all of the lines in one cluster. My friend had moved the lines closer together so she could watch them all easier. Uh, oh. This could present problems...especially if a fish bit on one of the hooks. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than, sure enough, one of the lines started zipping out. I reached down and set the hook in the jaw of a big redfish. Not good.....not good. That big fellow shot out across all of those other lines and no matter how I pulled to turn him, he was having no part of it. My friend did not understand when I urged her to wind in the other reels. I could only imagine the tangle once that redfish had his way. Ok, so since the other lines were not being removed from the area, I had to turn that fish and direct HIM out of there. Long story made short...I managed to steer the redfish away from all but one of the other lines. Yep, he tangled but I still landed him!
So, folks, do not fish with a bunch of lines all cast out in the same vicinity. Spread those hooks out a bit! It is definitely not a good idea to have everything all bunched up together. I think my friend learned a valuable fishing lesson today. Even though only one other line was tangled by the fish, we lost a good bit of fishing time. It took a good ten minutes to untangle the lines!
