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Catfish Tales
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Catfish Tales |
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jwesley Member Rara Avis
since 2000-04-30
Posts 7563Spring, Texas 
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Catfish Tales “Ouch!” I yelped. Getting stung, stuck, poked, finned, or whatever you want to call it, by a catfish spine, was never what I considered fun, and this time was no different. You’d think by now I would have learned to avoid getting stuck – after all, I’ve been catching catfish longer than more than half the people I know have even lived. This time I even used a catfish-flipper. You know, that twelve-inch long, quarter-inch thick aluminum rod that has one end bent back in a loop-shaped handle and the other end bent back into an inch-long, horseshoe-shaped hook. You slide it down the fishing line into the catfish’s mouth, onto the hook, and while holding pressure down on the hook where it digs into flesh, and at the same time keeping the line taut, you flip your wrist so the fish flips away from you and right off the hook. How fool-proof can it get? Oh, did you catch that section that said “. . . so the fish flips away from you. . .”? They could have printed that in big, bold, print for us older youngsters. I mean, I don’t go fishing to think. I go fishing to enjoy myself, to have fun, and being finned by gad-blasted catfish does not brighten my day. It hurts! It burns. It dang-blasted ruins any pleasure I’ve had to that point. So I yanked that little sucker out of my hand where it was stuck in the web between thumb and forefinger and threw it on the pier . . . “Owww!” I screamed scaring everybody on the pier half-to-death. The damn thing stuck right through my tennis shoe and into the top of my foot! “Uhhhh,” I said, kicking my foot and flipping that slimy little blankety-blank into the water. “What are you going to do for an encore,” laughed the guy standing several feet to my left, a laugh quickly picked up by others up and down the pier, soon followed by jokes and other “catfish” tales. “I think I’ll leave the catfish for you guy’s, “ I said, basking in the warmth of fisherman camaraderie, “or at least let one of you take it off the hook for me.” © w. james beard, jr. january 2005 |
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| © Copyright 2005 Wesley James Beard, Jr. - All Rights Reserved | |||
SEA 
Moderator
Member Seraphic
since 2000-01-18
Posts 22676with you |
you tell a wonderful story and put the reader, "right there".  that is the best... |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
Yep! You're a real story tell, you are! Enjoyed this a bunch and remember a few ouch moments of my own! misc'e |
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Alicat Member Elite
since 1999-05-23
Posts 4094Coastal Texas |
Heh, I know this one well. While still a youngun, just about daily, whenever those varmits were in season, you could find me down by Oyster Creek chicken/turkey neck trawlin for crabs, crayfish, crawdads, and fishin for channel cat and bass. Always used worms and grubs for bass and strips of old raw meat for cat (they's scavengers). Not to mention teasing the occassional alligator gar with a corn cob tied to a piece of string on my self-cut cane pole. Lord knows I swallowed my fair share of creek water during my youth, which is why I can't abide most seafood now. Every bite tastes a bit like silt. Very nice slice-o-life piece here, JW, one that definately brought back fond memories. Most of my dreams are still situated along that creek. |
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merlynh Member
since 1999-09-26
Posts 411deer park, wa |
This makes me want to go fishing only I'd have cut through the ice to get any fishing done here. |
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Earl Brinkman Senior Member
since 2010-03-03
Posts 1183Osaka, Japan |
When I was a boy I was always afraid of snagging a catfish because I didn`t know how to take it off the hook. It is comforting to know that other people have troubles as well. As far as actually eating one, for the longest time I thought that they couldn`t be eaten as I am from the north. I went down to Tennessee last summer and found them quite tasty. Boy, I could go for one now. |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
Nice tale...James |
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