a tale of tails, tenacity, and tedium, as told by me, usually barefoot and bellowing

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Seining Fish...

When I was a child, seining the pond was a annual event as the water grew low from the dry weather.  Low water, less oxygen...removing some fish assured the survival of the whole.

Our seine was about fifteen feet long with weights on the bottom and two poles at each end.  One person stood on the bank as the other waded out, set the seine and began to walk to the bank with the net on the bottom.  I was always the lucky one, red clay mud sucked at my feet and caused me to stumble but I held my pole straight and steady as I walked that seine to the bank.

A large bass kept jumping the net and we walked the seine again and again. We caught several catfish, some large perch and some small bass, plenty for supper and some for the freezer.

I was soaked from head to toe, mud all over me but we tried one more time. During the last sweep, there was no jumping fish, maybe he was worn out!  There was a chance, a small chance, Big Bass was in the net.

Struggling through the mud at the edge, I fell but spotted the giant bass flopping to reenter the deeper water.  No way was he escaping this time!

I dived toward the bass in the shallow, covering him with my body until I could get a good grip.  The fins stuck my stomach as I worked to get a hold.

Finally, triumphantly, I stand, totally mud-covered with a thumb in his gills and hold him high above my head while whooping at the top of my voice!

The sun shined bright as Daddy smiled.

12 comments:

T. Powell Coltrin said...

Sounds like fun...uh NOT. Sometimes I think I'm too girly and miss out.

T

Jules said...

Wonderful story, :) Though I love to fish I hate to touch them. My tackle box comes equipped with rubber gloves :D
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

My Daddy would go 'seining' and would bring home that huge net all tangles with turtles, crud and debris for me to clean out! Uck...

I wouldn't even eat fish back in the day.

BTW: He would always leave a mess of fish on the Game Warden's doorstep. He was generously ornery like that!!! Heeehehehe!!!

God bless ya and have a marvelous day my friend!!!

Rudee said...

You have the most fabulous tales of your childhood!

Country Gal said...

Never did that kind of fishing ! My dad and I did alot of fishing together though when I was a kid ! Love your header ! Have a great day !

Country Gal said...

And yes I was the one that guted them !

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

Gosh what a great childhood story. I wanna play. We never seined but we did run the fish in the creek out back of my Daddy Jack's place...sorta similar...I think that we just did it to get really muddy and wonderful myself.
Great sharing, thanks. The Olde Bagg

ellen abbott said...

What a great story. We had a seine when I was a kid, down at the beach house. We would walk it out in the surf. We'd get mostly crabs and mullet.

Judy said...

We only used a sein for bait minnows...

Jules...funny!! never considered rubber gloves as part of the tackle box...

An English Shepherd said...

Fishing sounds fun, if a little muddy ;-)

Wizz

Pat said...

What a gorgeous sunset in your header photo!

I learned something new today! I never heard of seining fish - not that this should surprise you - me being a city girl and all!

I love hearings stories of your childhood. Something tells me, though, that you've never really grown up!

carolina nana said...

We had 2 ponds when I was growing up but we never seined them,sounds like I missed some fun!!
Have a blessed tomorrow

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...