Trotlining for Catfish
Oct 10th, 2007 by Tweaked
Well this is another story of my wild youth that I wanted to share with ya’ll.
Back in the early 90’s my friend Jim was living in
This part of the lake is narrow like a big river with lots of current and plenty of timber. Jim’s dad had a small 1.5 hp motor; we rented an aluminum boat and attached a battery operated light system. Armed with all our fishing gear, liver for bait and some live large shiner minnows we were ready to go get ‘em.
We had looked for a nice wooded flat near the channel to bring in the big boys and planned to check it every few hours till late morning the next day. We shot out across the water and dodged all the boats to arrive at our destination about 15 minutes later.
Now I learned as a kid how to set up a good trotline and we used cut pieces of inner tube to give spring to the hooks and allow the fish to struggle without getting off. After getting all set up we went to the center of the line which was about 2 foot below the surface to attach a large rock that would sink the middle to the bottom causing a nice U shape with a float attached in the center.
The float allows you to raise the center and easily check the whole line without dealing with the weight. This makes rebaiting and getting our catch into the boat much easier. The inner tube is threaded down the line and tied in place at each hook spot with string. Then hooks are attached with strong string to the bottom of the tube allowing a spring action to the hook when bitten and pulled. This helps set the hook and gives play when they are struggling to get away.
It was 5 pm, with this all set it was time to drink, tell lies, chew, smoke cigars and be silly. We popped our first beer on the boat ride back to the dock. Now this particular dock was set with a huge parking area and at the back of the parking lot was a large meeting hall for parties or get together occasions. This will be important later in our story.
Jim and I have for years had this fun wild ability to tell jokes and stories for hours. Since he is a salesman, let’s just say he is a born entertainer. So we start drinkin and smokin cigars telling our latest jokes, stories and a few lies. We get pretty silly and by about 7 pm we are getting fairly intoxicated and its time to check the trotline or at least we want to get out on the water. So we grab our poles, then head out to fish and check out lines.
There has to be nothing better than reminiscing over past excursions, conquests and generally being silly with a buddy. Jim and I tried our best to catch some small perch to use as bait on the trotline later in the night and we enjoyed a great Ozark mountain sunset in the process. After checking the trotline and rebaiting it was time to head back to the dock in the dark.
Now it was about 10:30 pm or so when we finally got back to the parking lot and we grabbed the cooler deciding to cop a squat on a stag setup at the back of the lot for an upcoming fishing tournament. While we were out on the lake someone had started the reception for a wedding in the hall I mentioned earlier and the parking lot was full of cars. The closest car to us was about 20 yards from our stag on the shoreline.
We continued drinking and bullshitting, magically a bottle of snake bite medicine showed up, as it often does on our adventures. In this case the medicine was 100 proof peppermint schnapps. To be safe in that snake infested area we decided to drink up and make sure we wouldn’t get infected if we got bit by those scary little devils. Needless to say pretty soon we are drunk and singing fraternity songs.
At a quiet point we look up and notice two young hot girls coming our way. As we watched them approach we realized sitting there in the dark that they couldn’t see us so we were quiet wondering what they were up to. They came to the last car far from the hall about 60 yards away but right in front of us at about 20 yards.
Let me tell ya, these girls were cute, in there 20’s and in smoking hot little party dresses. Just as we were getting ready to try our luck in picking them up by inviting them over for a drink one girl kept look-out while the other hiked up her dress above her waist, dropped her panties, squatted and began to pee in the parking lot. I tell you after they both finished peeing, we toasted our drinks and smiled at our good fortune. The party must have been busy with not many bathrooms because pretty soon there were girls coming out in groups of four or five at a time. The viewing was great and we were getting quite a show.
Much later as luck would have it in my drunkenness I waited till two girls were in a squat to very loud say “Howdy….how ya’ll doin tonight” They took off like they had been shot and several minutes later a few of their boy friends showed up to kick our asses.
At that time of my life fighting was like breathing, just something you had to do. So as I got ready to fight Jim became the diplomat that he is and started talking to them, offering a beer or two. As a new set of girls headed our way Jim got them to be quiet and watch. After the girls left they started to laugh with us and enjoy the show too. A few sets of girls came out and we all had a big time at it till they had to go in or be missed. We of course told them it was time to leave and check our trotline.
Jim and I walked down to the dock jumped in the boat and headed across the lake butt ass drunk, drinking, chewing and smoking cigars. After wandering around the lake forever we finally found our trotline and it was empty except for broken hooks. Dang turtles often break hooks when they get caught if the hooks aren’t heavy enough steel. Of course in our stupor we forgot the tackle boxes so we couldn’t fix the problems. It’s time to head back to the dock, not wanting to miss any of the show at our scenic seats in the parking lot.
As we headed across the lake the wind was up, the boat was rocking and moving us all over. Soon I couldn’t take anymore and asked Jim to stop the motor in the middle of the lake. Since we were drinking, smoking and chewing all at once I asked Jim when the last time he spit out the juice from his chew was. He laughed and said oh no….. I leaned over the side and started puking my guts out. The boat was leaning way over and all I heard was “You Asshole!” as Jim puked over the other side of the boat. That little boat was pitched violently port to stern as we both took turns heaving till our stomachs were empty.
When we returned to the dock and tied up the boat it was about 3 am and we both were to drunk to speak. We each climbed in our cars and passed out cold. With the sun high in the sky we both woke up at 9 am hung over as hell, hungry and a bit grouchy. The normal people were all around us getting to the lake to spend family time. Jim and I decided to go find a breakfast place with the intent to start drinking again in the late afternoon after a long nap. The next night was full of more of the same….I don’t remember catching any fish but it sure was one hell of a good time.