THE FISH STORY
My Grandfather always said, "everyone has at least one fish story", he also said "Everyone that likes to fish is bound to tell a lie or two". I didn't understand what he was talking about till I got older and found not only my hunting stories, but everyone likes to stretch out their hunting or fishing conquest.
Now my brother, Lex, and I heard our grandfather say this often but never realized how sometimes even the truth is a little hard to believe. We decided to go fishing on a hot summer day. We purchased a box of worms but decided what we needed was some crawdads. Some people refer to them as crayfish, crawfish or even mud bugs but we were always told they were crawdads.
Now a lot of people, including myself, find crawdads to be quite tasty after they are cooked but the ones Lex and I were going after were the ones that had been in a ditch for quite some time. They had developed an odor from the stagnant water. Part of the challenge in catching these crawdads is getting them out of a ditch that is almost dried up. You cannot walk to the low area of the ditch because the Arkansas mud would be about knee deep and almost impossible to walk out. Lex and I knew of an area that was low, like I described. Dad’s foreman, Mr. St. Clair, had told us earlier how to get them out. He said, "Take you a piece of salt pork or bacon with salt on it and put it on you rod and reel. The Ol' crawdad can't resist it." Mr. St. Clair was right because when we threw the bacon in the water and slowly dragged it out, the crawdads would grab and hold on and not let go. These crawdads were a little different from the ones raised in a pond and used for cooking out. These crawdads had really bad attitudes. I don't know if it was the old "survival of the fittest" or the fact that the water had gotten stagnant, and they have to live in the water.
You had to grab these things like you would a lobster because the pinchers would feel like two little needles digging into your skin. We wanted these crawdads because we were told only the biggest catfish would grab at them and that was what we thought we wanted.
Dad asked us if we were going to the lake, but we decided to go on the river. In the summertime fishing on the lake was always a hot outing. If the wind was blowing and keeping you cool, the boat would be rocking back and forth. We decided to head for the St. Francis River. This river was right behind Dad's farm shop. We had a path, an area to load and unload a boat. I would always head upstream to an area we always had good luck, so that is where we headed. We eased up the river to our favorite area. I found a limb that was hanging over the river. Lex reached up and tied off the boat. We settled in the shade and cooled off with the breeze from the movement of the river.
Lex and I used, what is referred to, as a Carolina rig. It is a set up with a large weight on the bottom and the hook about eight to twelve inches up the line. After setting a couple of lines out with the worms, we took our strongest rod and reel with the heaviest line and attached one of the crawdads. After attaching the crawdad, we decided that the fish would have to be a large one because the crawdads were like little Chihuahuas with a really bad attitude.
We had a nice "mess" of fish on our stringer using the worms, but we were running out of the crawdads. We had figured that a turtle must have been feasting on our bait because every time we thought we had a bite we would reel the line in, and part of the crawdad would be left on the line. We knew how much time we would need to clean the fish before it got to dark, so we baited up one last time with worms and not only our last crawdad but the largest. Close to our exit time, we started reeling in the rods with the worms when the line with the crawdad got tight. I told Lex it was probably another turtle, but he said if it was it was heading upstream faster than a turtle. We retrieved the other lines and I reached for the large rod and reel. After taking up the slack in the line, I told Lex that we had something big. I worked on the fish for some time then, just as I thought it was going to be close to the boat, it headed down stream. I tried to use the reel and turn the fish, but it still headed down stream. I released the line and told Lex to untie the boat and we would follow it till it got tired because it was bigger than I thought. We knew it wasn't a turtle because it was moving too fast, even in the river current. Even though other large fish were in the river we were hoping for a large catfish. Lex was watching me and pulling on the rope to bring the boat closer to the overhanging limb. Just as he reached to untie the boat he let go of the rope. When he released the rope, the slack came back into the line then when the boat came to the end of the rope, the sudden stop caused the line to snap. I dropped my head and looked over my shoulder. Lex said, "it wasn't my fault, look at the limb." I looked at the limb and there laying on the branch was a snake. I couldn't tell if it was just a black water snake or a water moccasin but when I looked at Lex he was laughing and said, " I think they were in it together." I started laughing with him and told him to just cut the line when I got the motor cranked. When we got back to the shop, we started cleaning the fish we had caught. Mr. St. Clair walked up and told us we had a nice mess of fish. We told him we had lost a big one. He just smiled and said, "You will always lose the biggest one."
He was right because every time we went fishing together, we always seem to lose a big one. Or that is what we told everyone....
Funny but true. The small fish is always a “whopper”. Reminds me of the grumpy old men movie ice fishing- had not seen in years, but came on tv - it was funny & love all the fishy business!
He was wise to know not to take chances with a snake!