4.27.2016

My fishing Buddy

   Sometimes when Peg is busy or needs me to stay out of her hair for a bit so's she can concentrate on what she needs to do, I jump in TinkerBail , my old jeep...tinkerin' or bailin' her out, but she's pretty reliable now days.  I pull her outa the driveway and go ride somewhere to sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery we got around here or go find a bank and toss in a line to see if I can pull in a few catfish.  It's a wonderful way to just sit and relax with a good book, wilin' away a few hours enjoyin' the sights and sounds of beautiful South Louisiana. 
   I don't post about it very often, 'cause I aint a trophy fisherman or a fill-the-ice-chest kind of guy neither.  Usually it's just a few fish; enough for supper or for one of our friends or neighbors, and that's enough of a day of catchin' for me.
  Well, anyway, here's today's fish story:
   With today's traffic bein' what is it, what with unsafe drivers thinking they are playing one of their 'road rage' games along our highways, or who knows..drunk or 'high' or especially texting...driving distracted, anyhow, Peg and I never leave our driveway without first prayin' and askin' the Lord to come along with us and keep us safe, along with everybody else on the road. 
  So, today, I just didn't feel like fishing alone and was talking to the Lord like I usually do. Like the old song says, "What a Friend we have in Jesus".  Peg and I take that literal. I'm not ashamed to say that He truly is our Friend, and has pulled us out of a lot of messes and has also blest us beyond words.
  So today, I figured He was my fishin' buddy. I hoped He wouldn't mind if, just for today, I called him Buddy. After all, He used to hang out with fishermen and pulled some fancy fishin' tricks on 'em, too. 
   I knew rain was coming this afternoon so me and my Buddy
decided to head for the Mississippi River to a li'l sandy place I know of and sit under a tall shady tree and watch the ships pass by.  
  Well, right off the bat, my Buddy was pullin' my leg a little and was probably laughin' up His sleeve. I tied on a hook and pulled the line tight and "Yaw!" it snapped!  After a couple tries I decided that the wimpy string on the Yankee fishin' pole that I call "Mac" wasn't near stout enough for the River's current, so I stripped all the line off and put some 30# mono on the reel, tied on a hook and good chunk of lead. 
   I rared back and chunked it hard, but the "flimsy" rod shot that piece of lead way out into the River all the way to the end of the string I had just put on.  When I saw it go, I was wondering for a second there if I did, for sure, tie it. (yes, I did) 
  When I tried to reel it in a li'l closer, I quickly found the drag was so loose that I figured it couldn't be reeled in with all that  weight, without slipping.
  Finally, after screwing the drag all the way down, I was able to reel it in and gently lob it out to the right distance this time. All this rewinding and messing around took about an hour, 'cause while doing that, I was also busy pulling in, re-baiting empty hooks on one of my hand lines that kept falling victim to some small bait thieves. I think my 'silent Partner' was enjoying all the goings ons. They didn't have  the luxury of all this fancy equipment back in His old fishin' buddies' days. 
   Finally I got everything set up where I could sit, relax and enjoy mah-self, when of course, it started drizzling rain.
This is my folding chair sitting by the water.  My Buddy's pole, "Mac" is the one ya see leanin' on the ice chest.  I cut a stick for a hand line that's stuck in the sand there, too. 
  So, 'we' sat there in the warm rain enjoyin' the day, anyhow for about 45 minutes. All I had got so far was empty hooks. 
But it wasn't all bad; I love sitting there looking out across the wide river.
 Well, true to form my Buddy hadn't been fishing for 10 minutes when the pole bent. It was a nice little channel "cat".
Barely got him in the ice chest though, before it really started raining hard. I called Peg (my favorite weather gal) and she said I better pack up and come on home before the big part of the storm got to where I was, cuz she was looking at the radar map on her computer and said it was fixin' to  get really stormy.  
Man, I hated to have to pack up and head home because that meant that my fishin' Buddy's pole had skunked me. 
 The bad news being the trip was cut short and when I got home, Peg showed me the weather radar; would you believe...! The bright red indicating a really, really thunder and lightening showdown headed straight for where I had been sitting over at the river...split apart...part of the strong weather went just north and part went south. Even the weather guy pointed it out and had a good laugh about it, but he didn't know how it happened. Me, too, neither, but I have my suspicions.  
The good news is, tho', back at the house it had rained too much for me to cut the grass tomorrow, so I may just have to head back out to the riverbank again for another try.  Being out-fished by a danged Yankee fishin' pole named "Mac" that Nobody looked like they was holdin' onto,  really took da cake.
 
~~~The next day I went back to my spot and again sat in the rain enjoying the river.
I sometimes wonder if the crew of the ships at anchor across the river look at me over here fishing like I look back over at them.
It wasn't long until I dragged a nice 'channel cat' onto the beach.
And soon another one joined it in the ice chest.
Lightning began to flash just as I ran out of bait, so I headed on home.  
After the thunderstorm passed I took the fish outside and cleaned them.
 I will spare you the cleaning part in case ya squeamish, but they made a nice bag of fillets that I stashed in the freezer for future court bouillons or for when we do a nice fish fry.  Time will tell.
   At least I did twice as good as I did yesterday...I wonder how many I would come home with, sittin' out there at the River with a week's worth of readin', reelin' and relaxin'. Might be fun to try and find out.

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