Bluegill Fishing

What's better today, my friend? For me, it is the memory of fishing Saturday with my son, Bobby. We did not boat around the lake looking for fish which might have given me a chance to check the shore for Bigfoot tracks. Two law enforcement people reported seeing a Bigfoot in Arkansas on the shore of a river apparently to catch crappie. They supposedly found the carcasses of several crappie he had eaten. Bobby fishes almost every day and is now able to smell the fish when they are bedding. Couldn't a Bigfoot do the same? One thing a Bigfoot hunter could do if it were legal would be to take a canoe out along with a poweful spotlight with a red lens and paddle along the shore of a lake or river. Once in a while, he could turn the spotlight on to see what was going on. Bobby told me, " You can tell what the weather is going to be by watching the eagles. If there is a storm coming up, they will come out in force looking for food. I've seen as many as six. Also the gators will start swimming out of the center of the lake to the shore. If it's going to be good weather you will see the big ones swimming out to the center of the lake." Late in the afternoon, we did see a big one going for the center of the lake. The boats of alligator hunters came by and tried to snag him on big treble hooks connected to fishing rods, but each boat failed. The gator does not remain on the surface, of course, but goes down to the bottom where he brushes the bottom and releases air bubbles. You can see where he's swimming away by the trail of air bubbles. You lead him and cast your treble hook whick catches on his armored plates. Then you get towed until he becomes to tired to swim anymore. At that point, you can hook him again and pull him to the side of the boat. Then you use a push gun on a pole to shoot him in the head and kill him. Bobby and I hunted with a professional gator hunter, and we took a twelve-foot gator out of the lake Bobby and I fished Saturday. It was interesting and very unusual but not exciting. The exciting part was that I had to sit on the gators in the boat, and they were not dead. Bobby had a seat right on the bow of the boat because he had good eyes and could spot the gators first. You shined a spotlight and picked up their glowing red eyes. One time, Bobby almost got knocked into the water by one of the half-dead gators I was sitting on. He did not Bobby's chair over. People at the gator processing plant kidded our gator hunter about bringing in half-alive gators and told of a time one jumped off his boat. Bobby and I hunted with this man two years until his wife, a registered nurse. told me, "We keep them half-alive so their meat won't spoil before we get them to the processing plant." I was amazed that a woman and a registered nurse to boot could countenance such cruelty. Plus, she knew I wrote a monthly column in an outdoor magazine. There's a law out there that says the more you study something, the less definite it becomes. That applies here too for gators do not die easily, and people say that even if they are dead, they will still move, like a snake does after death. In fact, I've read that the only way to make sure they don't move is to run a rod up their spinal cord. The old-time illegal gator hunters used to do that sometimes to keep the gator quiet. I had hoped to have a friendship with my gator hunter and was already planning a snipe hunt with him down at Kissimmee Lake, but when I heard he was being deliberately cruel to the gators that ended our relationship. Saturday, I asked a gator outfitter if he was still operating, but he didn't know him.
Bobby and I did well, getting 92 bluegills. We used 350 crickets which was a big bill. Bobby knew exactly where they were so all we did was motor over a few hundred yards, tie up, and stay in the same spot all day. I was broiled medium-rare, and my aloe plant hates me.
I asked a number of fishermen and gator hunters about seeing a Bigfoot, and none had. I heard this: "I finished fishing and came back to the landing. There was the most beautiful blonde I've ever seen. She came up to me and said, 'Please Mister, could I buy some of your fish. I'm having a fish fry for my children, and I don't have enough fish.' Now I knew enough not to sell fish to strangers even a gorgeous blonde so I said no, and she went over to another guy. He sold her some, and she immediately pulled out a badge showing she was an undercover game warden. Now this seems like entrapment to me. How do you refuse a gorgeous blond who wants to feed her kids." My answer is that you give her the fish along with your phone number. Now, if that's illegal, you don't. Just give her your phone number and offer to take her and her oldest child fishing. My friend, there are so many laws out there in hunting and fishing that you need a law degree to stay out of trouble. It's got so that a game warden could probably walk up to you and find something you were doing that was illegal if he were inclined. And we are the ones who are paying for the outdoor enviroment. Part of the answer is to support organizations that help stop the incessant encroachment on your freedom like the National Rifle Association.
Try to walk the path of love until we meet. Two-Guns at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.