The morning was to begin at 6:00. Why six? Haha because M always gets up at six,or before
, like he has done every morning he has been here and just like he does at home. So of course there is no need to set an alarm unless we want to get up before that. Right!? I roll over at 5:53 and think, "Geez, I had better get up because that rascal is going to jump me in about seven minutes if not a few minutes before that." So, I am up, I get the paper, I get breakfast and M finally makes an appearance at 6:30 and rather sheepishly says, "I don't believe it. I always get up by six except this morning when we are going fishing." He really wanted to be up. No problem. We are on the banks of Paddock by nine and fishing. When we get there we meet an old guy from Nampa with his teen nephew who have been camped there for a few days. He tells us that he had called the F and G and found out that the size and take limits have been dropped since the reservoir is so low that the fish are going to be lost by the end of the year. I tell you that because the first fish M catches is about 3 inches long. A crappie. I unhook it and slip it back into the water. What! M caught that part of the conversation about no limits. "Why did you throw my fish back?" I had to explain that it was just too small to clean. He then catches about a five inch crappie that swallowed the hook (we are using worms), so we keep that fish. Then he catches a six inch bass which he keeps. He had lots of fun catching those. Then it starts getting hot and he wants to go. Good call, M! I say how about one last cast. He was good with that and with that he catches a bullhead. It fought harder than any other fish and even spun out some line past the drag causing the reel to scream. He loved that. As you can see by the picture at the lake the bullhead was a little sand encrusted for picture taking. It was about ten inches long. I hate cleaning catfish, but M was sure not going to be talked into throwing his biggest catch back into the lake. The old guy we talked to at the beginning properly admired M's catch and showed him the proper way to hold a bullhead, but M was having none of that.
, like he has done every morning he has been here and just like he does at home. So of course there is no need to set an alarm unless we want to get up before that. Right!? I roll over at 5:53 and think, "Geez, I had better get up because that rascal is going to jump me in about seven minutes if not a few minutes before that." So, I am up, I get the paper, I get breakfast and M finally makes an appearance at 6:30 and rather sheepishly says, "I don't believe it. I always get up by six except this morning when we are going fishing." He really wanted to be up. No problem. We are on the banks of Paddock by nine and fishing. When we get there we meet an old guy from Nampa with his teen nephew who have been camped there for a few days. He tells us that he had called the F and G and found out that the size and take limits have been dropped since the reservoir is so low that the fish are going to be lost by the end of the year. I tell you that because the first fish M catches is about 3 inches long. A crappie. I unhook it and slip it back into the water. What! M caught that part of the conversation about no limits. "Why did you throw my fish back?" I had to explain that it was just too small to clean. He then catches about a five inch crappie that swallowed the hook (we are using worms), so we keep that fish. Then he catches a six inch bass which he keeps. He had lots of fun catching those. Then it starts getting hot and he wants to go. Good call, M! I say how about one last cast. He was good with that and with that he catches a bullhead. It fought harder than any other fish and even spun out some line past the drag causing the reel to scream. He loved that. As you can see by the picture at the lake the bullhead was a little sand encrusted for picture taking. It was about ten inches long. I hate cleaning catfish, but M was sure not going to be talked into throwing his biggest catch back into the lake. The old guy we talked to at the beginning properly admired M's catch and showed him the proper way to hold a bullhead, but M was having none of that. So on this trip M has caught rainbow trout, crappie, bass and bullhead---seven fish in all. He was pretty pleased and did a good job of fishing. He says that when he gets big and is a good fisherman, he is going to buy a boat and take me fishing. I am really alright with that. Tomorrow morning M is look forward to a breakfast of two really small crappie filets, two pretty small bass filets and two bigger catfish filets. There is just enough meat there to make a decent fish breakfast for a nine year old.
Gramma J is hand sewing a heavy duty flannel liner into big, heavy sleeping bag for an old Alaskan backwoodswman. He is in Weiser for a month or two visiting, but is heading back up to Alaska soon. Says he needs that big, heavy sleeping bag in the winter and really needed the lining replaced. He found out at the local coffee shop that Gramma J would do such things for a reasonable compensation. J loves his gnarled, wizened look and the long beard.
Papa Coyote is thinking that feet in the swimming pool might be really refreshing and relaxing right now. Oh, I guess after I wash up the kitchen area having fileted those fish.
Papa Coyote loves you all,
2 comments:
Wow! Great Job M!!!
You did awesome. You should have held that bullhead like a man. ;) Just teasing. I remember Papa making me and Uncle D help with a giant (to me at the time) catfish that he caught. It took all 3 of us to skin that thing. Gramma J took one look at it and told him he was on his own, so it was up to his dear children to help. We pulled and pulled with all our might. I can't remember how we actually got the skin off that critter. I'll never do that again. Unless I am really, REALLY hungry! Then Papa took it to school and tricked some of the teachers into eating it. That trickster. I don't think they all appreciated that trick.
The faculty lounge hog happened to eat just about the whole ten pounds of that smoked Flat Head Catfish. He thouhgt it was some of the best smoked salmon he had ever tasted and wanted to know my recipe. He about threw it all up when I told him it was catfish. Actually, most all of the teachers loved it because the faculty room food hog had eaten most of it as he usually did when someone bought food to the faculty room. It was a wonder that he spent any time in the classroom teaching. He got his just rewards that time.
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