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| Saturday Overnight Open Thread (8/28/21) Limited Content Edition »
August 28, 2021
A Fishing StoryIt’s been a while since we’ve had a fishing thread on a Saturday, so how about doing one tonight? Although it’s always fun to read about the zen of fly-fishing or the strategies of bass fishing, I am just a lowly bait-chucker. My fishing ideal is to put a shrimp on a hook, throw it out into a salt-water bay, and then sit and wait to see what (if anything) takes the bait. One of the interesting aspects of fishing off of a pier or a jetty is the other people there around you. Some may become a friend for that one day. Some are simply entertaining to observe. Some might even be a little scary. The story below is true. I typed up the dialogue as best I remembered it after returning from this fishing trip. Feel free to read it and comment. Or feel free not to read it, but I’d love to hear your own stories about: - Characters you’ve met while fishing.
Back in the 1990s, not too long after my college days were over, I often made the couple-hour drive to the Texas coast to do some bay fishing. Sometimes I went with friends, but sometimes alone. The Copano Bay State Fishing Pier was my favorite destination, as it was a repurposed highway bridge that spanned the entire mouth of Copano Bay (except for a section in the middle that was removed to allow boat traffic.) Any fish that swam into or out of Copano Bay swam under that pier. On this fishing trip I was alone. I set-up my poles and chair under a light and had a successful night of fishing for speckled sea trout. In the wee hours I returned to my car, pointed it east, reclined the driver’s seat for a few hours sleep, and with the rising sun I returned to the pier for a little more fishing before I planned to drive home. The fish were no longer biting, so I kept moving further out on the now-empty pier. I settled in at the end and soon found myself lost in thought when I was surprised by a big strike. While reeling in, I realized that I now had company. A weathered man of indeterminable age was watching me. The fish turned out to be a hardhead catfish, a junk fish that steals bait and is armed with a wicked dorsal fin. I threw the fish back into the bay. “Why’d you throw it back?” the stranger asked. I laughed and told him I probably should try one someday, but for now I’d keep pursuing trout and flounder. Still serious, he asked me, “Ever gone hungry?” He then returned to his poles which were leaning against the rails behind me and down the pier a little way. Not too long thereafter I hooked another hardhead. The stranger was watching me. I was not going to keep this fish, but it seemed that offering a hardhead catfish to him was a pathetic form of charity. I’d rather have caught a respectable fish, or just given him a trout from the cooler in my car. “Want it?” I asked. He took it and thanked me as he dropped it in his bucket. About then I caught another hardhead and again offered it to the stranger. He took it and then asked if he could throw his line on my side of the pier. I was happy to oblige, since catching hardheads wasn’t providing me any satisfaction. “Where’re you from?” he asked. At that moment I realized it would not only be tacky to pursue the line of conversation (“So, what were you in for?”) but I also did not want to discuss a criminal’s record, alone with him at the end of a long empty pier. By not knowing whether he was a car thief or a murderer, I could assume the best, quickly concede that the trout just weren’t biting, and pack up and go. It now felt creepy that I had slept in my car at the pier. The quiet was a little awkward and he spoke. “Did you go to college there in Austin?” I was no longer afraid of him and he was comfortable talking about prison, so I was now curious to learn a little more about him. “So, you thought you might not get out this last time?” I thought about how devastating it would be to be locked up for so many years of early adulthood. “Does it make you bitter?” I asked. He went back to fishing and caught himself a hardhead. He threw it in his bucket then started packing up to leave the pier. “You know,” he said, “my biggest regret isn’t those lost years. It’s how it hurt my folks. They had to always try to avoid talking about family. They became less social. It hurts to have to say, ‘My boy is in prison in Huntsville.’ Mom died while I was in prison and I missed her funeral. I’ve paid my debt to society. I think I’ve overpaid. By looking out for dad I can try to repay a more important debt.” As he started to walk back toward land, he smiled at me and said, “If you’re ever hungry, you oughtta try a hardhead.” I’ve caught a lot of hardhead catfish since then. And I’ve thrown every one back. But catching a hardhead always causes me to recall the wisdom of a decent ex-convict whose path in life briefly intersected with mine one morning on a South Texas pier. (buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com) | Recent Comments
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Monday Overnight Open Thread - January 20, 2025 [Doof]
Invasion of the Apple Snatchers Cafe At Last Night's Rally, Trump Was Joined on the Stage By His Strongest Totally-Not-Gay Supporters Quick Hits Surprise: Defender of Normzzz and Protector of the Criminal FBI Pardons Terrorist Who Murdered Two FBI Agents Quick Update on "Team DeLulu" Cope Border Patrol Trucks Are En Route to the Southern Border Elections Have Consequences: The TSA Official Who Put Tulsi Gabbard on the Terrorist Watch List Has Been Fired The Inaugural Ceremonies, Continued "A Revolution of Common Sense:" Trump's Inaugural Address "For Americans, January 20, 2025 is Liberation Day." Search
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