Wednesday, December 23, 2015

What is fishing? Ch. 8: Cheating....

Yes, cheating. I didn't think so at the time, but later had to admit that I probably cheated. What pointed me in that dire train of thought? I had had no luck catching anything for days. Someone, probably my mother, told me to buy catfish bait and throw it all around my part of the bayou. So I did. What stinky stuff!!

Nothing happened for a couple of days. Then the barometric pressure changed: rain was on the way. What happened next was my messenger about the barometer: fish started biting as if they had not eaten in a good while. I would throw in my line and -bam!- my cork started bobbing, then running this way, then that way, then down! I had so much fun playing those fish.

I would think I had them, then whoosh--the line went limp. Over and over, finally  victory and I pulled out a beautiful fish. I caught eight fish that day, mostly blue-gill bream, a couple of gorgeous sun perch, and surprise, surprise, a nice fat striped bass.


It is that striped bass that caused me to think perhaps I had cheated. He swallowed that hook! Oh, how I hate that. I have my needle nose pliers but this hook was too deep to avoid injury. Ug, half his tongue came out with that hook.

I always imagine giants in the sky treating me as if I were a fish, with identical torment that I bestow upon fish--and even worms. When I tear those Canadian Night Crawlers in half, I imagine the screams that must rip through their bodies.

Anyway--the aggression with which the fish attacked my worms, the powerhouse way they tried to evade capture made me think that, maybe, just maybe, I had cheated by using the catfish bait.

"No, that's not cheating," my sister assured me. "Have you ever watched fishing competitions on television? They use every method known to man, woman, and beast, plus things the audience knows nothing about. So forget this cheating notion." So I did.

My day ended well into darkness. My happiness, I'm sure, lit up my surroundings. One last cast--and they were still biting. Wow...

Addendum: Click on the following clip to see just what monster hood a striped bass can grow into: (I think you need to cut and paste)

https://www.google.com/search?q=striped+bass+fish&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=566&source=lnms&tbm 




No comments:

A favorite souvenir

A favorite souvenir
These are my two girls from Ireland!

Judy's shared items

Books on my very ambitious TBR list (*denotes read)

  • *Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox
  • The Odd Women by George Gissing
  • The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson
  • How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell
  • The Cod Tale by Mark Kurlansky
  • In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
  • *Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
  • Dag Hammarskjold by Elizabeth Rider Montgomery
  • The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Rabbi Michael L. Munk
  • Children of Strangers by Lyle Saxon
  • Spiritual Writings by Flannery O'Connor
  • Nightmares and Visions: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque by Gilbert H. Muller
  • The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
  • Flannery O'Connor's South by Robert Coles
  • Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
  • Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey
  • *Vincent de Paul by Margaret Ann Hubbard
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
  • A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
  • Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
  • *Ruined by Paula Morris
  • Say You're Not One of Them by Uwem Akpan
  • Wandering Star by J.M.G. Le Clezio
  • Silence by Shusaku Endo
  • *The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  • Kari's Saga by Robert Jansson
  • *The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal
  • Western Skies by Joseph Conrad
  • *The Giver by Lois Lowery
  • *Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski

School Library Journal - NeverEndingSearch

Imperium

Imperium
A semester course in one book about the Soviet Union. Click on image for my review.