I’m puzzled as to why I can never place in the top three at the annual Bayport, Michigan, Good Ole’ Boys Cat Fish Tournament. My wife is quick to point out that it shouldn’t matter as long as I had fun. "Besides," she minimizes, "’Catfish’ is one word and ‘Olay’ is a skin moisturizer." I’ve been hearing this for years, or whenever I wear the latest tournament ball cap around the yard. It’s a consolation prize; everybody gets one for entering the competition. I paid for it—fifty bucks—so I might as well wear the damn thing. (Side note: Should I ask my wife if "ball cap" is a compound word?)
Anyway, I’ve tried all kinds of stink bait. I’ve packaged sun-ripened chicken liver in small strips of panty hose. I’ve smeared garlic & cheese paste on small plastic plugs with embedded hooks. I’ve injected night crawlers with store bought pheromones (makes them swell-up to twice their original size and gives them sex appeal). None of these methods has worked. This time I bought leeches at $2.99 per dozen because Billy P. (who places year after year) uses them. He didn’t fair as well this time, no prize money. Still, my hat goes off to him; he hauled in bigger fish and I’m sure he wasn’t as prepared as past years considering he’s running on batteries thanks to a recent heart-attack. Did he not use leeches? I’m not sure. What I do know is that baiting the hook isn’t easy when the leech is latched to your skin.
I’m home now. My neighbor leans against the fence. "How’d the fishing tournament go?" He’s originally from down south. He considers me a Yankee. He knows how I’ll answer; it’s the same damn response. I give him the weights of the top three fish. I’m sure he’s unimpressed. "What really stinks," I say, "is having to go back to work." He loves every minute of it. He’s retired. I wonder if he uses skin moisturizer after a hard day of gardening. Maybe I should ask him. But I won't.
11 comments:
I'd suggest you ask your wife what bait you should use. I believe she and mine would get along fine in the way they critique our endeavors.
The bad thing is if she said "use such and such" and you placed in the top three...well you know what would happen.
Best to just take the expensive ball cap.
Oh c'mon.
Worm, three-cornened hook and lead sinker. No float. Works every time.
But then I gave up fishing when the neighbour seemed to not to want to come with me.
And what was he up to?
If the fish in that picture are yours, they look pretty damn big to me.
My son uses leeches - with great success.
I'm not a fisherman, so I have no idea. I would've thought the pheromones would've worked - guess they're not human... Maybe you should Google it. :)
LEECHES?? OMG! I have a funny experience with leeches from a time I was hiking in Nepal. I'll have to write about that sometime. Got them all over my feet. Yeesh!
Well I could suggest some baits I suppose by Yankee catfish probably eat different foods than our good ole southern catfish. Here we deep fry the worms and that get's 'em everytime.
Your fish look great to me, too. But I'm sorry you didn't win. Some weekends, gigantic fish leap all around me, but they won't touch my bait. Then people think I'm lying about how big the fish were. Heavy sigh. I hope you win next year!
J.R.-Maybe because the tourney is not local, you are not privvy to the spots where the big 'uns hang out? As I understand it, catfish are bottom feeders, so you need to mimic bottom fare. Tell your neighbor to use an SPF when gardening.
A mouse-fish? But first you'd have to build a better mouse-fish-trap...
Nevermind.
Those look like some nice size catfish. When's dinner? I would use CG's suggestion and deep fry your worms? Use cajun seasoning.
Give it a try. Enjoyed the read.
MW.
Don't know if you've ever tried it, but in Canada I knew people who used frozen corn nibblets as bait & swore by it. Regardless, looks like you have a nice harvest on your stringer there!
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