This Is Why Fishing is Fun (Part One)

Jul 11, 2018, 3:39 PM

This is a long story so I may post about half today and the other three-fourths later.

Some of you older men may remember #### Wheeler, former head of the Animal Husbandry Dept. at Clemson Univ. many years ago. #### was one of my neighbors. One beautiful summer day, he walked down to my house and we were having a friendly chat. We remarked about the nice weather and he said it would be a nice time to go fishing. We decided to go in late evening and do some lantern fishing that night, hoping to get a string of nice crappie.

We were in complete agreement and started making our plans. #### had an old car and a nice boat and trailer and said he would go to a bait shop and get a supply of minnows. I volunteered my wife to make some sandwiches and iced tea. It was in the midst of peach season so I threw several in a sack. Looking through the pantry I spied a tin of sardines and added that to our evening menu.

#### said he knew a good place to fish and there was a good spot to get the boat in the water. The hour of departure arrived and we loaded the boat with tackle, bait and food. Like all old fishermen, we knew we were going to catch a slew of fish, old fishermen can just feel it in their bones. The road to our fishing hole hot spot was down a single lane dirt road out in the boonies, a road I had never traveled.

We got the boat in the water and knew immediately we were in for a good catch because there was a strong smell of fish waiting for us to drop our lines in the water. We took the boat over to a spot where we knew the big crappie were waiting. We dropped anchor, and it still being daylight, had not yet lit the lantern.I put a minnow on my hook and dropped it in the water. Before I could ask #### if he had baited his hook, I reeled in a one-pound crappie. Only a true fisherman can understand and appreciate the joy of catching a fish as soon as the bait hits the water. We had hit the Mother lode.

Fellows, I'll let you in on a secret right now. From that point on, everything was down hill. That was the only fish we caught. Between that catch and midnight we tried several more of those "supposedly" hot spots and didn't even get so much as a nibble. The only happy thing in that boat was the crappie when I tossed him back in the water. When returning from a fishing expedition and someone asks, "how many fish did you catch", if you say "one", they will shame you by laughing. But, if you tell them, "we didn't catch any", they commiserate with you and have that genuine look of sympathy on their face. So, one of the "never do's" of fishing is going home with one fish.

That one fish was not the worst part of the evening. It was just turning dark when we decided to have a bite to eat. I handed #### a sandwich and opened one for myself. I poured each one of us a paper cup full of tea, Next, I opened the tin of sardines and balanced the tin on my leg as I unwrapped some Waverly Wafers. ####, thinking he had a bite on his line, jumped up and in doing so, rocked the boat. Both of our sandwiches went in the water, the tea overturned as did the tin of sardines. The liquid from the sardines spilled on my trousers. The only food item we had remaining were the peaches and tea.

About mid-night, we decided we had enjoyed all the fishing we could stand. We went to the point where we had put the boat in the water and inched close enough to dry land so #### would not have to wade in water when he got off to go get the car and trailer. I backed the boat away as #### backed the trailer in the water so we could get the boat aboard. Everything went fine until I slipped and went into the water. Fortunately, the water was only about one foot deep but my shoes, socks and trouser legs were water soaked.

(To be continued)

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

This Is Why Fishing is Fun (Part One)

Re: This Is Why Fishing is Fun (Part One)

Re: This Is Why Fishing is Fun (Part One)

So, he’s DiCKK!

TigerBoard POTD